
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 











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A FRUITFUL LIFE: 

A KAKBATIYE 

OF THE 

EXPERIENCES AND MISSIONARY LABORS 

OF 

STEPHEN PAXSON. 



BY HIS DAUGHTER, 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY REV. C. L. GOODELL, D.D. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

No. 1122 CHESTNUT STREET. 

NEW YORK. CHICAGO. 

1882. 





3vi5i^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 

THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



FERGUSON BROS. &. CO., 

PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS. 

PHILADELPHIA. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Introduction, by Rev. C. L. Goodell, D. D. ix-xiv 
CHAPTER I. 

BOYHOOD AND MARRIAGE. 

The Bright-colored Paper Treasure — Stephen 
Paxson's Parents — The Quaker Grandmother 
— In the Home of Harman Fagan — Appear- 
ance at School — A Cripple — Stephen becomes 
a Hatter — His Love of Music — Meets Miss 
Pryor — His Marriage - 15-27 

CHAPTER II. 

BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

Mr. Paxson removes to Winchester — His Fond- 
ness for Dancing — The "Mississippi Valley 
Enterprise " — A Sunday-School at Winchester 
— Mr. Paxson's First Day in Sunday-School — 
His Conversion — Becomes a Volunteer Mission- 
ary — Organizes a County Sunday-School Con- 
vention — Overcomes his Stammering - 28-46 

CHAPTER III. 

MISSIONARY WORK IN THE WILDERNESS. 

John Adams — He Recommends Mr. Paxson as a 
Missionary — Removal to Hickory Hill — The 

(v) 



VI CONTENTS. 

Boy and the Book— The Sunday Scholar and ** 
the Man of Fifty 47-60 

CHAPTER IV. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS ON THE FRONTIER. 

The Missionary at Work — Helpers on the Farm 
—The Waiting Wife at Home— Chasing a 
Superintendent Four Miles — A Fourth of July 
Speech— A Tobacco Story— The " Very Same 
Chap " — A Cloud over the Home — The Peach- 
Basket Story 61-80 

CHAPTER V. 

ROBERT RAIKES, THE MISSIONARY HORSE. 

The Democratic Objector— The Offer of a Horse 
— In a Blacksmith's Shop ... 81-90 

CHAPTER VI. 
a missionary's experiences. 
Removal to Summer Hill— A Missionary Letter 
—A Talkative Lady— Might have a Methodist 
School — " Corn-bread on a Log " - - 91-104 

CHAPTER VII. 
roses and thorns. 
Appeals in the East— Speeches in Boston, New 
York, Brooklyn, Bangor and Philadelphia- 
Returns to his Field—" Jowler " and the Mis- 
sionary—The Dog Fight— The Yankee Trick- 
Panther Creek — Hazel Switch Dell— The 
Wealthy Widow's Gift— Encouraging Teach- 
ers—The Secret of his Influence - - 105-130 



CONTENTS. Vli 

CHAPTER VIII. 

MASS-MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. PAaB 

The Bush-whackers — Robert Raikes,Jr. — The An- 
tioch School — The Wigwam Convention — Indi- 
anapolis Convention — Convention in Canada — 
Qualifications of Teachers - 131-143 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE NEW WORK. 

Sunday-School Scholars in Active Life — St. Louis 
Depository — Results of Frontier Work — A 
Commentary for Fifteen Cents — Labors in 
Texas — At the Iowa Convention — The Mis- 
souri Convention — Work on the Cars — The 
Record of his work — Visit to the Centennial — 
Speech at Atlanta .... 144-167 

CHAPTER X. 

CLOSING LABORS. 

A Debtor to Grace — His Golden Wedding — The 
Books he Studied — His Scrap-books — His Last 
Hours - - 168-185 

CHAPTER XI. 

TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS AND CO-LABORERS. 

From Rev. B. W. Chidlaw— Rev. S. B. S. Bissell— 
Prof. C. W. Jerome— Rev. Robert West— Wil- 
liam Reynolds — B. F. Jacobs — Nelson Kings- 
bury— S. B. Pratt— Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, 
D. D.— George H. Stuart - - - 186-217 



INTRODUCTION. 



The life of Stephen Paxson here pre- 
sented will be widely read, I believe, by the 
boys and girls from seven years old to 
seventy. That it will be very useful in 
building character and promoting Bible in- 
struction among the young, I am sure; so 
that he shall do as much in his dying, it 
may be, as he did in his living. 

That the book will be enjoyed intensely 
by the reader as he turns the vivid pages, 
I have not a doubt. I wish I were young 
again long enough to read it through, and 
catch the glow of enthusiasm for a fruitful 
life, and to kindle under the inspiration of 
noble deeds, as I did when years ago I was 
first held captive by the charm and fascina- 
tion of the remarkable story from his own 
lips. 

What can God do for the world, by 
means of a boy that is poor, and lame, and 

(ix) 



INTRODUCTION. 



stammering in his speech? Great things! 
Read this volume and see : and then go 
and do what it teaches. Let your heart be 
soil for the good seed, for this book is 
the Sunday-school missionary sower, going 
forth to sow by life and example after his 
spirit has passed into the skies. 

The scenes among which this life was 
spent, have lively interest for the young. 
Frontier life in our country, east and 
west, has always been one of hardship; 
and these hardships in the west, no less 
than in the east, have been encountered 
in the spirit of a noble heroism. Every 
furlong of the way, from the Atlantic shore 
to the Rocky Mountains, has been won to 
christian light and privilege, at great cost 
of suffering and trial. Wilderness, wild 
beasts, want, Indians, fever and ague, and 
paths of bottomless mud, have had to be 
overcome. The foundations of the little 
prairie churches and log-cabin Sunday- 
schools have been laid, for two thousand 
miles westward from the ocean's rim, in 
poverty and tears. The east has its Pil- 
grim Fathers ; the west also has its fathers 



INTB 01) UCTION. x { 

who have been pilgrims and cross-bearers 
on the earth fo» Jesus' sake. It is the 
privilege of a christian people to hold its 
benefactors in grateful remembrance. This 
is sufficient apology, if any were needed, 
for putting this book before the public — to 
embalm a worthy name, conspicuous in the 
service of Christ when such labors were 
better than gold in the wilds of the west. 

Every section has its men eminent for 
usefulness, whose names it is a delight to 
honor. Such a man was Stephen Paxson 
in the Mississippi Valley. Every worthy 
cause has its distinguished founders and 
promoters; lives we hold up for imitation, 
and whose memories we preserve as 
household treasures. Such a man was 
Stephen Paxson in the work of the Sun- 
day-school. For forty years he was a nota- 
ble landmark in the west in Sunday-school 
work, and came to be known and esteemed 
as a veteran in Sunday-school service 
throughout the entire land. He fairly won 
his good name by devoted and heroic ser- 
vice on the field. Few christian workers 
have fought their battles against greater 



x ii INTRODUCTION. 

odds, or have had more speedy and bril- 
liant victories to record. He came to his 
work when the sabbath in the west was 
a howling moral wilderness. When his 
heavenly Father called him home, he left 
whole states, like empires for size, com- 
pletely organized for Bible instruction, and 
a generation of youth, unborn when he 
commenced his itineracy, studying the 
Word of Life every Lord's day. 

The American Sunday-School Union, 
among the large benefits it has bestowed 
on the nation, has rendered no single ser- 
vice greater than this — that of recognizing 
the vast power of usefulness in this man. 
If the state were to build its monuments to 
those who preside over childhood — the 
fountain of its power — to keep the waters 
pure and sweet, surely the name of Stephen 
Paxson would be among the first which the 
rising marble would be charged to bear in 
grateful remembrance. Out of his schools 
organized in the lowly new settlements in 
the backwoods, men have come forth to 
seats in our national Congress, and to 
places of usefulness everywhere among us. 



INTR OD UCTION. x \ [[ 

Many who never saw Father Paxson 
will wish to know what it was, after all, that 
enabled him to work such wonderful results. 
The secret of power in men can never be 
caught with a pen and put on paper. The 
dew-drop, when touched by the hand, be- 
comes common water. 

Externally, the secret of his power was 
partly in his eye, like an eagle's — partly in 
his noble bearing and commanding presence 
— partly in his fiery energy — and much also 
in a voice which was like a silver trumpet, 
and in his magnetic speech, which arrested 
attention and laid hold of the deep places in 
the soul. But more than this he was a man 
of God. He came down to his work every 
day from the mount where he had been in 
communion with his Lord. The Highest 
spoke through him, and anointed him 
with wisdom, and endurance, and patience. 
He had for his daily manna, the love of 
Christ. He had for his daily work, power 
from on high. The world is at the feet of 
such a man. 

The history of this Sabbath-school mis- 
sionary is told in this book by a beloved 



xi v INTR OD UCTION. 

daughter with conscientious fidelity, with 
commendable directness and condensation, 
and with a vividness adding zest and warmth 
of interest to matter which, however put, 
could not fail to attract the reader. 

Stephen Paxson was at his death a member 
of Pilgrim Congregational Church, St. Louis, 
and for several years its beloved and hon- 
ored senior officer. An excellent bas-relief 
in bronze, by the artist Kretschmar, hangs 
in .the prayer-meeting room of the church 
where his voice was so often heard, and the 
Sunday-schools of the west are contributing 
toward a monument to his memory, which it 
is proposed to erect in Belle Fontaine during 
the next year. 

As his pastor, knowing him but to love 
him and revere his memory, it is given to 
me as a privilege to lay this wreath upon 
his sepulchre. He sleeps well in the heart 
of the Great Valley of the continent, which 
he labored with all his soul to put in the 
coronet of his Lord. 

C. L. Goodell, 
Pastor of Pilgrim Church. 

St. Louis, December 9th, 1881. 



CHAPTER I. 

BOYHOOD AND MARKIAGE. 

A little lad accompanied his mother to a 
store one day, and, finding a bit of bright- 
colored paper on the floor, he picked it up 
and carried it away with him. When a 
little distance from the store, his mother 
discovered his gaudy treasure, and inquired 
where he had gotten it. He replied that 
he found it on the floor. She immediately 
returned and made him offer it to the mer- 
chant, who said : " Let the child have it, for 
it is of no value whatever." " No, sir," was 
the response, " he had no right to take what 
did not belong to him, no matter how worth- 
less, and you must allow him to return it." 
That lad was Stephen Paxson. Little 
Stephen, though taken early away from 
home, was old enough to remember his 
mother, and how tall and queenly she 
looked ; and this single circumstance, which 
happened when he was just old enough to 

(15) 



16 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

understand, fixed itself indelibly in his 
mind. 

Stephen Paxson, the eminent pioneer 
Sunday-school missionary, was the son of 
Joseph and Mary Lester Paxson. He was 
born November 3d, 1808, in New Lisbon, 
Ohio. Three brothers of the Paxton family 
— the name was spelled originally with a t 
— came to this country at an early date from 
England ; so Joseph Paxson, who was born 
in Virginia, was of English origin, as was 
also his wife, Mary Lester, who was a native 
of Maryland. 

They were married in Virginia, and re- 
moved thence to Ohio. They had seven 
children, of whom Stephen was next to the 
youngest. The father died while the chil- 
dren were young, and circumstances forced 
the mother to seek homes for them among 
strangers. But each one became the child 
of Him who has made a special promise to 
the fatherless. 

Another of the earliest of his recollec- 
tions was of being taken to church by his 
Quaker grandmother, Sarah Paxson, the 
first woman who ever preached in that part 



BOYHOOD AND MARRIAGE. 17 

of the state. He often told in after years 
how his heart was stirred as his grand- 
mother, in a great Quaker bonnet, and white 
kerchief crossed over her plain dress, rose 
and began her address in deep, mellow 
tones, pronouncing each word so slowly and 
tenderly that the opening sentence — always 
the same, no matter what the theme of her 
discourse — sounded like a benediction : 
" Obey the Spirit within, and be at peace 
with God." This sentence so deeply fast- 
ened itself in his childish memory that 
long afterward, when the Sunday-school 
had shed its benign influence upon him, it 
became a ruling maxim for his own conduct. 
The devout old lady did not live to know 
that the youngest of her auditors in the old 
Quaker meeting-house was consecrated by 
her earnest, fervent words to a life of re- 
markable usefulness. 

But a lonely, struggling, suffering boy- 
hood, and an early manhood devoted to 
things of time and sense, were slowly to 
intervene before the seed sown by such 
gentle, loving hands could spring up into 
beauty and fruitfulness. 
2 



18 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

The child soon became an inmate of the 
home of Harman Fagan. The conditions 
of his indenture required that he should be 
sent to school for three months in the year. 
The lad, whose heart was heavy with the 
sense of loss of mother-love, always so 
needful to the happy growth and expansion 
of tender minds, consoled himself by recall- 
ing his mother's assurance that he would 
have some opportunity to go to school, and 
perhaps some day would become educated 
and able to care for his mother in her old 
age. So he took courage, and ran barefoot 
over the briery hills to bring home the cows, 
or gather rosy apples from under the orchard 
trees, while waiting expectantly the winter 
term at school. 

But' all his bright anticipations of school 
life were ended in a day. The child had an 
impediment in his speech, which, under the 
least excitement, was fatal to any effort to 
make himself understood. His first ap- 
pearance at school — an event looked forward 
to through a long summer of toil and lone- 
liness — produced such a state of nervous 
trepidation that, when called upon, he could 



BOYHOOD AND MARRIAGE. 19 

not give his name, or age, or any intelligible 
account of his mental acquirements. The 
children all laughed — the very children the 
social little fellow had so longed to meet — 
while the teacher, the man who had occu- 
pied so many of his reverential thoughts, 
and whom he had expected to find as sym- 
pathetic as his mother, as serene and help- 
ful as his Quaker grandmother, had never 
a placid " thee " or " thou " in his speech, 
stamped his foot impatiently, and harshly 
ordered the boy to go home, and sent by his 
hand a note requesting the people who had 
him in charge to teach him to talk before 
they sent him to school. 

This occurrence was sufficient excuse for 
the farmer's subsequent failure to provide 
for the boy's education ; so he was kept 
steadily at work, without even a picture- 
book to gladden his active mind. The only 
pleasure he enjoyed lay in his intense love 
for nature. He roamed with delight through 
the grassy woods where birds and insects 
flitted, his music-loving ear charmed by 
every sweet country sound. 

While yet a lad, however, he was at- 



20 A. FRUITFUL LIFE. 

tacked by a painful disease known as white 
swelling, which made him a helpless cripple 
for a long time, and partially lamed him for 
life. Long, weary months of suffering passed 
slowly away. Euphemia Fagan, his mistress, 
was a Quaker, and felt sympathy for the 
orphan boy in the loneliness of his solitary 
garret, and one day she kindly offered to 
read to him. He hailed the proposal with 
such gratitude that her heart was touched, 
and she read entirely through to him the 
only book she had which she thought could 
possibly interest a boy. 

The story was an account of Oelar, a 
Quaker preacher, who went about doing 
good, exhorting beggars in the streets, and 
caring nothing for worldly advantage, but 
with eyes ever turned toward the Celestial 
City. Much of it was written in verse — 
mere doggerel — but the eager mind of the 
boy only caught it the more readily for the 
rhyme. Every word was so impressed upon 
his retentive memory that, though he only 
heard it once, and it was of considerable 
length, he remembered it through life, 
and repeated many verses of it only a few 



BOYHOOD AND MARRIAGE. 21 

weeks before his death at the age of seventy- 
three. 

As the boy tossed restlessly upon his bed 
of suffering through the painful nights and 
the monotonous days, the story of this man's 
wandering life of self-forgetfulness was 
his only food for thought. He resolved 
that if he ever became able to walk he 
would travel all over the world ; though as 
he was ignorant and now lame besides, and 
unable to talk well, he did not hope to be 
helpful to others like the good man in the 
story. 

Later, when he heard the grander story 
of him who wandered with weary feet 
over Judea's hills, a living sacrifice, his 
heart was touched anew and to higher 
issues. 

The circumstance of the boy's lameness 
made a change in his occupation necessary, 
and he was apprenticed to learn the trade 
of a hatter. He now entered the home 
and service of a certain Mr. Clapsaddle. 
In his master's shop he became at once the 
butt of ridicule on account of his stammer- 
ing speech. The young apprentices showed 



22 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

him little mercy, and invariably called him 
" Stuttering Stephen." Little did he or any 
of them think that there was a resolute en- 
ergy in that young breast which would avail 
to conquer nature's infirmity; that this very 
voice, so slow and hesitating now, would 
one day stir the hearts of the people as by 
the call of a trumpet. 

Again an intense desire to learn to read, 
was awakened in his mind by the sight of 
the various signs painted in staring letters 
over the shop doors, and of the posters fas- 
tened on the fences. When work hours were 
over, as he hobbled up the street he would 
ask his companions the names of this letter 
and of that, until he could decipher every 
sign in the town. He occasionally found 
an old castaway newspaper, and it was a 
proud day for him when he could read its 
title, printed in large letters at the top. 
With no help but an answer once in awhile, 
to the question, " What do you call this let- 
ter?" he was at last able to read, though 
slowly and inaccurately. 

Sometimes a traveling hatter with a big 
covered wagon halted at the shop for a 



BOYHOOD AND MARRIAGE. 23 

load of hats. He would often tarry for 
hours, singing songs and telling stories of 
his adventures. Never a song was sung, 
but the lame youth had learned the words 
and caught the tune by the time the sing- 
ing was ended. Never a story was told 
but it was treasured up in the mind of 
" Stuttering Stephen," who, while he could 
not repeat the stories well, sang like a lark, 
to the surprise of those who heard his 
stammering speech. The spirit of song 
seemed to subdue his infirmity, and to in- 
spire him with the power of musical utter- 
ance. 

The time at last arrived when the young 
apprentice could make a hat as well as his 
master. He had already determined to 
travel, though he knew he should often be 
obliged to walk, and his weak ankle might 
prove a serious drawback. But he was well 
and strong in other respects, and thought 
that with the help of a stout cane, he 
might accomplish many miles a day. 

He walked to the Ohio river and en- 
gaged to work for a passage down the 
river. He had seventeen cents in his 



24 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

pocket, the skill of a good trade in his hands, 
and a cheerful, hopeful heart, with which to 
face the world. If at any time he felt a 
dread of the unknown and untried future 
which he had started out to meet alone and 
unaided, he would console himself by listen- 
ing to and learning some new song. The 
day he first heard " Highland Mary " and 
" Bruce's Address," was an epoch in his life. 
He learned to love the songs of Burns with 
an absolute devotion. 

Travelers were attracted by the young 
fellow who was so social, so fond of song, 
and interested in every thing he heard said, 
and they took special pains to answer 
clearly all his hesitating questions. Thus 
making friends at every turn, and learning 
something from every one he met, he wan- 
dered from state to state. He would 
often stop at some hatter's shop and ply 
his trade until he had replenished his 
empty purse and secured means to supply 
his simple wants; then he would pass on 
to see new places, until at the age of 
twenty-one he entered the state of Tennes- 
see. 



BOYHOOD AND MARRIAGE. 25 

His personal appearance was prepos- 
sessing. He was tall, well-proportioned, 
and had remarkably fine black eyes, raven- 
black hair, and complexion dark as that of 
an Italian. 

He came one day, in the course of his 
travels in that state, to the bank of a 
stream. He wished to cross to the other 
side, but found that the man who kept the 
ferry-boat was absent from his post. On 
the opposite side of the small river sat a 
comely girl in a skiff. He beckoned and 
called to her to row toward him. She did 
so, and then paused for his message. It 
was of course an apology for interrupting 
her, and a request to be carried over the 
stream in her boat. She hesitated, looked 
up into his expectant face, and consented. 
Gallantry compelled him to take the oars, 
but as he was entirely inexperienced in 
boating, the frail bark went round and 
round, and at last darted recklessly down 
the current. The young lady resumed the 
oars, and soon the boat was deftly landed. 

The blue eyes and golden curls of his 
fair boatwoman — above all her quiet com- 



26 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

posure when in danger — impressed the 
heart of the stranger. Both were young 
and romantic, and believed : 

" He never loved, who loved not at first sight." 

Rapid in every mental decision, the 
young man was equalty prompt in carrying 
his plans into execution. He discovered, 
upon further acquaintance, that his new- 
found friend was the much-loved daughter 
of 'Squire Pryor, an English gentleman, 
and a man of importance in that com- 
munity. Nothing daunted by the superi- 
ority of her social position to his own, he 
won her for himself in a few short months. 
Though the portly squire talked of disin- 
heritance in true English style, in vain was 
every effort to win back her affections from 
the black-eyed stranger, whose stammering 
question with its tinge of Quaker accent: 
" Sa-a-rah, dost thou love me ? " had its own 
quaint charm. 

They were married October 18, 1830, 
and went at once to live in Virginia. Here 
a little daughter was born to them, who was 
destined in after years to lead the feet of 
her father into paths of blessedness and 



BOYHOOD AND MARRIAGE. 27 

peace. Soon the family removed to Ala- 
bama. In the course of a few years a 
son was added to the family circle, whose 
future mission it was to make many returns 
to the sunny land of his birth, on embassies 
of love tending to the religious culture of 
the young. 



CHAPTER II. 

BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

In the year 1838, Mr. Paxson moved 
with his family to Winchester, Illinois. 
Here he continued to ply his trade with 
industry and success. He secured a pleas- 
ant home, and provided his growing family 
"with the best educational advantages the 
place afforded, though he took no time for 
self-improvement. 

The thought of God was not in his heart. 
He was fond of worldly pleasures, and 
especially of dancing. Despite his lame- 
ness, he became very proficient in this art, 
and was proud of being called the best 
dancer on the floor. He employed a 
fiddler, giving him a yearly salary to be 
ready at any time to supply him with 
music. He never entered a church, or 
paid the least regard to religious observ- 
ances. 

About four years previous to Mr. Pax- 

(28) 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 29 

son's removal to Illinois, an event occurred 
in Philadelphia, which was to affect the 
whole future life of this obscure man in a 
far-away western village. 

At the sixth anniversary of the Ameri- 
can Sunday-School Union, held in the 
Washington Square Presbyterian Church, 
Philadelphia, it was resolved, " That the 
Union, in reliance upon divine aid, will, 
within two years, establish a Sunday-school 
in every destitute place where it is practi- 
cable, throughout the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi." 

The persons who passed this resolution 
did not realize the magnitude of such an 
undertaking, and how many years it would 
require to accomplish the desired result. 
Nevertheless, that resolution was destined 
to work great good.* The next morning 

*This "Mississippi Valley Enterprise" was one of the most 
important events in the history of the planting of Mission Sun- 
day-schools in America. It created a wave of popular enthusi- 
asm which swept over the whole country, and was felt even in 
Great Britain. Prominent ministers of all denominations, able 
statesmen, and noted merchants, vied with each other in promot- 
ing the grand scheme. Their masterly addresses and liberal gifts 
indicate that some of them, at least, had some conception of the 
magnitude of the enterprise, and its important bearing upon the 
moral character of the people speedily to fill that vast valley. 



30 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

after the meeting, Mr. Tappan came to the 
rooms of the Society and said : " I was very 

The reader must remember that their plans and ideas are not 
to be judged by the population and christian wealth of 1882, but 
of 1830. Then the population of the whole United States was 
less than 13,000,000, and of the great Mississippi Valley, includ- 
ing Ohio^nd Louisiana, was hardly 3,000,000. Michigan and 
Arkansas were mere territories, Missouri had barely 160,000 peo- 
ple, Wisconsin and Iowa were unknown even as territories until 
half a dozen years later, Chicago was a mud hamlet, not then 
having attained the dignity of a Western village, and most of 
Illinois was a wild prairie, or a " howling wilderness." For their 
day, these men of 1830 had wonderful foresight, magnificent 
plans for God and our country, and they gave and worked upon 
a scale corresponding with the grandeur of their scheme. A 
record of their noble doing is worthy of the attention of the 
generation of to-day, and ought to inspire us to plan and execute 
mission enterprises of similar magnitude. 

The sixth anniversary sermon of the American Sunday-School 
Union in 1830 was preached by the Rev. Francis Wayland, D. D. 
(Baptist), President of Brown University, R. I. ; the " Missis- 
sippi Valley Resolution" was presented to the annual meeting by 
the Rev. Thomas McAuley, D. D., LL. D. (Presbyterian), of 
Philadelphia, and warmly advocated by him, and by the Rev. 
Lyman Beecher, D. D. (Congregationalist), then of Massachu- 
setts, and the Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Sr. (not then a D. D., 
Protestant Episcopal), of Philadelphia; by the Hon. William 
Milnor, Mayor of Philadelphia ; the Rev. G. G. Cookman (Meth- 
odist Episcopal), of Philadelphia, and many others. Three or 
four additional meetings were held in the same city in that and 
the week following the anniversary. At one of them, pledges 
for the organization of 150 new schools, and for the supply of 32 
counties (exclusive of the 150 schools), and subscriptions of over 
$12,000 in money were received. 

In New York, similar meetings were promptly called. At one 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 31 

much interested last night, and I would like 
to go to the Valley of the Mississippi as 

held in Masonic Hall, June 9th, 1830, Chancellor Walworth pre- 
siding, the crowds were so great that hundreds were unable to 
gain admission ; the subscriptions at the meeting exceeded 
$11,000. 

The popular enthusiasm swept into New England, and a large 
meeting was held in Boston at which the Hon. William Keed, 
the Kev. Dr. Wisner, the Rev. J. D. Knowles, the Rev. Dr. Cor- 
nelius, the Rev. Robert Baird, and others, advocated the measure 
with signal ability. 

Early in 1831, a large and representative meeting was held in 
Washington, attended by the most distinguished statesmen of that 
day. Senator Grundy, of Tennessee, presided over the assembly, 
and St. Clair Clark, Clerk of the House of Representatives, acted 
as Secretary. 

The "Mississippi Valley Enterprise," as proposed by the Amer- 
ican Sunday-School Union, was eloquently and ably advocated on 
the broadest principles of christian statesmanship, by the Rev. 
John Breckenridge, Hon. William Wirt, Hon. Elisha Whittlesey 
of Ohio, Hon. N. D. Coleman of Ky., Hon. C. E. Haynes of 
Ga., Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen of N. J., Hon. Daniel Web- 
ster of Massachusetts, and other members of Congress and prom- 
inent statesmen. The Hon. Thomas S. Grimke, South Carolina's 
most eloquent orator, earnestly advocated the vast importance of 
the plan before a brilliant audience in Charleston. 

Nor did those christian statesmen of half a century ago, nor 
the Sunday-School Union, let this scheme end in speech-making 
and empty enthusiasm. Within the first year after the adoption 
of the resolution, the Society, then be it remembered only six 
years old, received nearly $25,000 in cash for the Mississippi en- 
terprise alone, while it expended in supporting missionaries, and 
planting schools in the great Valley, nearly $39,000. Within two 
years, the contributions to the " Valley Fund " exceeded $60,000. 
These may not seem large sums now, but they were princely gifts 



32 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

one of your missionaries ; but as I can not 
go myself, here are a thousand dollars with 
which to employ some man who can go." 

The person chosen was B. J. Seward, a 
cousin of the late Secretary of State, the 
Hon. Wm. H. Seward. He made his way 
to Illinois, and organized a number of 
schools. He found Rev. John M. Peck, 
and had him also employed as a missionary 
of the American Sunday-School Union. 
Mr. Peck organized, among others, a union 
Sunday-school at Winchester, Illinois, as 
the different church organizations in that 
place were not strong enough to sustain 
schools of their own. After a time the 
school declined, but was revived and re- 
organized by Dr. John Adams, of Jackson- 
ville, Illinois, who was also in the employ of 
the Union. Dr. Adams had been Teacher 
at Phillips Academy for thirty years, and it 
was said that he had prepared more men 
for the ministry than any other person then 

then. The total contributions to the Union for mission work, the 
year previous, 1829, were less than $2,500. Hence the benevolent 
contributions were increased ten-fold in a single year. If this 
should be done now, it would receive upward of $1,000,000 
for its Mission work next year. — Editor American S. S. Union. 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 33 

living. But he declared that he thought he 
had done more good by means of the two 
hundred Sunday-schools he had organized 
after he was seventy years old, than in all 
his previous life.* 

In this school, organized by Mr. Peck and 
revived by Dr. Adams, little Mary Paxson 
became a pupil, sent quietly thither by her 
mother. 

One Sabbath the superintendent said : 
" There are not as many children in Sunday- 
school as there should be. Won't each 
scholar here to-day bring a new scholar 
next Sunday?" One of the teachers, Mrs. 
Elvira Summers, urged her pupils to com- 
ply with the request of the superintendent. 
Little Mary promised to do so. She tried 
to find a new scholar among her associates, 
but not a playmate would consent to go. 
On Sunday morning she went to her father 
and told him she had promised to bring a 
new scholar to the school, but no one 
would go, and added persuasively : " Father, 
won't you go?" 

" Well, Mary, what kind of a school do 

* See note in Chapter III., p. 47. 



34 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

you have on Sunday? What do you do 
there?" 

" Oh ! it's not like week-day school, for 
we read in the Bible, and sing such pretty 
songs." 

He loved his little girl, and thought he 
would gratify her enough to walk down to 
the house with her. 

On reaching the door, he was about to 
pass on, when the spirited singing of the 
children within caught his ear, and he hesi- 
tated. Probably no other human being 
could have induced him to enter that room, 
but Mary said, hopefully : " Come in, papa ! 
I know you will like it." 

He followed her in, and the influence 
of a little child gave to the Valley of the 
Mississippi one of the most useful men of 
this generation. 

The superintendent, Mr. Haynie, though 
much surprised to see him, was careful not 
to manifest this. He welcomed him cor- 
dially, saying : "lam glad to see you here ; 
your little daughter is one of our best 
scholars." 

This remark, showing appreciation of his 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 35 

child's efforts, pleased him, and when Mr. 
Kilpatrick, the librarian, had added his 
warmest greetings, Mr. Paxson said : " Gen- 
tlemen, now tell me what you do here." 

" We have," said the superintendent, " a 
union Sunday-school. I'm a Methodist, 
Mr. Carter is a Presbyterian, Mr. Miner 
here a Baptist, but we all unite to study the 
Bible." 

This remark pleased him also, for he had 
heard very little about churches except 
their quarrels and dissensions. Mr. Haynie 
then said to him : " Here is a class of boys, 
from ten to fifteen years of age, whose 
teacher is absent ; and I want you to take 
charge of it and teach it." 

Mr. Paxson replied, " No, indeed, Haynie ; 
those boys know more than I do ; I'll join a 
class, but I won't teach one." 

One of the boys in the class spoke up 
and said : " I'll tell you what we will do, Mr. 
Paxson ; we'll make a bargain ; you tell us 
all you know, and we will tell you all we 
know." 

" Enough said," was the response, " I'll go 
in on those terms." 



36 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

He took his seat with them, and the boys 
proceeded to read a chapter, helping their 
teacher to pronounce, whenever he came to 
a hard word in his verse. 

After the chapter was read, he supposed 
that was all there was to be done, and 
closed his book. But his little teacher said, 
" Mr. Paxson, you must now ask us some 
questions on the lesson." 

He glanced over the chapter, and not 
perceiving any questions there, he replied : 
" Boys, I guess there are no questions in 
this chapter." 

"Oh!" said Wesley Knox, who was 
spokesman for the class, "you must go to 
the library and get a book which will show 
you what questions to ask." 

"What do you call a library?" said Mr. 
Paxson, for a man who had confined his 
reading to newspapers had small use for 
books. 

Wesley replied: "Do you see that dry- 
goods box nailed up in the corner? Well, 
tltafs the library." 

He went to it and said, " Mr. Librarian, 
have you a book here that asks questions?" 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 37 

He was given a " Union Consecutive 
Question Book," and returned to the class. 

A new difficulty now arose, for none of 
the questions he propounded were on the 
right chapter. However, the boys soon set 
him right by finding the proper place. Then 
there arose another trouble. The book was 
of the old-fashioned kind, without Bible ref- 
erences; so, when he would look from the 
Question Book to the Bible to see if the 
answers were correct, he would lose his 
place. Finally he gave it up, saying, " Boys, 
let's adjourn." 

Right here, he was in the habit of saying, 
he realized the importance of preparation for 
teaching. He proposed to take the same 
lesson again for the next Sunday, so as to 
give himself opportunity to study it. 

By this time the perspiration covered his 
forehead, and he felt that he had never done 
such hard work in his life before ; but he 
thought it was now over. Just then little 
Wesley Knox exclaimed, " Mr. Paxson, 
won't you hear me recite my verses ? " 

He handed his teacher the book, and re- 
peated quite a number that he had learned 



38 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

during the week. He was congratulated 
upon what he had done by Mr. Paxson, and 
told that if he continued to study thus, by 
the time he was as old as himself he would 
know the New Testament by heart. 

" But," said the boy, " I want some tickets 
for memorizing these verses." 

" Tickets ! What are they ? " 

" You'll see, if you go to the librarian. 
He will give them to you," said the anxious 
boy. 

He went at once, and said to the librarian, 
" I've got one of the smartest boys in my 
class that there is in this school. He has 
learned a lot of verses, and wants some 
tickets." 

Mr. Kilpatrick inquired, " How many do 
you want, Mr. Paxson ? " 

" Oh, I don't care ! give me a handful or 
two," was the reply. 

The librarian smiled and responded, " We 
don't give them out in that way. Go back 
and find out how many verses the boy 
knows, and then I will tell you how many 
tickets he is entitled to." 

So he returned to the class, and said, 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 39 

" Wesley, it's no go ; you'll have to say 'em 
all over again." He did so, and then wrote 
down the number with a pencil, and his 
teacher returned with the requisite number 
of tickets. 

None- of the actors in this little Sunday- 
school drama could foresee that, years 
hence, its chief personage would, in his own 
original and altogether inimitable style, pic- 
ture this scene, this first day's experience 
in Sunday-school, to enthusiastic audiences 
from Maine to the Gulf, from the Atlantic 
Ocean to the Rocky Mountains ; and that, 
moved by its drollery and touched by its 
pathos, a rich harvest would be poured by 
willing hearts into the Sunday-school treas- 
ury in consequence. 

For four years he attended this school, 
never missing a Sabbath. He was con- 
verted, and united with the church of which 
his wife had long been a consistent member. 
From the hour he entered the Sunday-school 
old things passed away and all things became 
new. His youthful yearnings for intellectual 
culture returned with renewed force. Life 
took on new meaning. He began to study 



40 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

with diligence and success. So great be- 
came his enthusiasm for Sunday -school 
work, and so desirous was he that others 
should share in what had become such a 
blessing to him, that it became his custom, 
after the hard labors of the week were 
ended, and he had attended his own school 
in the morning, to hire a conveyance and 
go out in the afternoon to visit the various 
school-houses within reach in the country. 
If he found the people unprovided with 
such an organization, he would help them 
to start a school, or would assist in re- 
viving any feeble one that needed en- 
couragement. 

In such volunteer work he never wearied. 
For miles around his influence extended, 
until he was known and called upon for 
assistance in Sunday-school work all over 
his own and the adjoining counties. With 
great executive ability and much practical 
sense he converted to his use and enlisted 
in his service every possible extrinsic in- 
fluence. 

A little experience soon taught him that 
he had more power to arouse enthusiastic 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 41 

interest in the cause than knowledge to 
direct its course, as a consequence of his lack 
of familiarity with Sunday-school methods. 
In passing over the county he found a 
diversified population. In one part the peo- 
ple were from England and the Eastern 
States, and he found the teachers better 
informed than those in another part of 
the county, where the people, coming from 
Kentucky and the South, were unfamiliar 
with the details of the work. These would 
come to him for information in regard to 
the best way of teaching the Word of 
God. He felt his own ignorance so deeply 
that he was perplexed as to what to 
do. He thought earnestly upon the sub- 
ject, and laid it before his heavenly Father 
in prayer. 

He first held a few mass-meetings of 
various schools within reach of each other, 
in the woods, where speeches were made, 
songs sung, and the teachers encouraged 
and instructed by one another. At last the 
idea occurred to him that the standard of 
Sunday-school teaching might be elevated 
by calling all the teachers of the county to- 



42 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

gether in convention, that those who had 
received superior advantages might instruct 
and help those who knew less. Thus he 
thought he might secure a great diversity 
of experience and information, which could 
be made available in the work. 

April 20, 1846, having made due prepara- 
tion therefor, he summoned the teachers of 
the county to meet in convention in the old 
Presbyterian church in Winchester. 

This was the first County Sunday-School 
Convention ever held. ::: From it has sprung 

* By this statement Mr. Paxson's biographer does not mean to 
assert that similar meetings for a similar purpose had never been 
known, but only that this convention was the beginning of that 
system of county, state and district Sunday-school conventions 
which has been so popular in the last twenty years. Similar 
local organizations and meetings of teachers and Sabbath-school 
workers were not unknown nearly a quarter of a century earlier 
than this convention in Scott county, Illinois. The conception 
was none the less original and creditable to Father Paxson, how- 
ever, since it is quite evident that he had no knowledge of these 
earlier meetings in other parts of the country. Hartford county, 
Conn., had a County Sunday-School Union, and held meetings 
for a purpose similar to that proposed in Scott county, 111., nearly 
a quarter of a century before the one at Winchester. The annual 
reports of the American Sunday-School Union from 1825 to 1830 
show that there were about four hundred such local organizations 
in active operation at that time. And the interest and profit 
derived from this local form of conference led to the National 
Sunday-School Conventions of 1832 and 1833 in New York and 



BROUGHT INTO SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 43 

up the system of county, state, and district 
conventions — agencies which have now as- 
sumed national and international propor- 
tions. It was the desire for knowledge that 
gave the impulse to his zeal and inventive 
powers, which led to a result so beneficent 
and far-reaching in its influences. It was 
a singular and providential overruling of 
ignorance and inexperience in aid of the 
diffusion of knowledge. 

He found that the beneficial influences of 
such a meeting were manifold. New in- 
terest was awakened among teachers, public 
sentiment aroused, the best thoughts of the 
best teachers on the subjects connected with 
their work was secured. 

There was present at the meeting the 
Rev. William Carter, from a neighboring 

Philadelphia. The weekly issues of The Sunday School Journal, 
published by the American Sunday-School Union, contain abun- 
dant evidence of the enthusiasm awakened by these national and 
local conventions of that period. Later this method of increasing 
the enthusiasm and the teaching power of those engaged in Sun- 
day-schools appears to have been little used, especially in the 
west. Father Paxson hit upon the same expedient, thus repro- 
ducing a comparatively forgotten agency, and made it more 
widely popular than in former days. — Editor American Sunday- 
School Union. 



44 ^ FRUITFUL LIFE. 

county, who became interested in Mr. Pax- 
son, and suggested that he should hold a 
convention in Pike county, urging as a rea- 
son that the people there would highly ap- 
preciate it. In the fall of 1846 this conven- 
tion was held at Pittsfield. 

The great trial of Mr. Paxson's life — his 
stammering speech — had now become almost 
unendurable to him. He wanted to speak 
fluently and with effect in behalf of the 
work so dear to his heart. He began to 
think of attempting a cure. He had never 
heard of such a thing being accomplished 
in modern times ; but there was a story to 
the effect that Demosthenes was willing to 
hold pebbles in his mouth in order to over- 
come some impediment in his speech. He 
reflected that though unable to heal his lame 
ankle, he had yet learned to use it, and had 
been able to walk twenty miles a day, even 
while the blood oozed from it ; that, when it 
was better, he had learned to dance with 
every appearance of ease. Could he not, 
he questioned himself, invent some plan to 
release his bound tongue, when his object 
was so much higher and holier ? 



BRO UGHT INTO SUNDA Y-SCHOOL. 45 

He determined to study himself and the 
impediment that repressed the utterance of 
thoughts which smothered his heart, in their 
restless throbbing for expression. Surely 
he would find some way ! For the resolute 
soul there is ever a path opened. He 
would watch and pray. He discovered at 
last, almost by accident, that, whenever he 
filled his lungs with air and expelled it 
slowly, accompanying his speech with cer- 
tain gestures, the nerves seemed to relax, 
and the words came with greater fluency 
and ease. He acted at once upon this hint, 
and practiced every day. He found to his 
joy and amazement that the key to the com- 
bination lock set upon his speech lay in his 
own hands. 

He felt himself a new man, now he need 
no longer hesitate about his fitness for the 
work of the Master. A heart aglow with 
zeal and a loosened tongue — were not these 
sufficient for the work whereunto he was 
called? 

True, he had little education, but this 
very want made him sympathetic with those 
denied, like himself, all opportunities of 



46 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

culture. He remembered that there were 
thousands of children in lowly destitute 
regions, hungering for the bread of life 
and longing for books, as he had longed in 
his boyhood. To carry books to such chil- 
dren, to gather them into Sunday-schools — 
for this he would give up everything. He 
determined to persevere in his self-ap- 
pointed task. He only wished he could 
give to it all the days in the week instead 
of one. 

" I will follow the leadings of providence," 
he would say, " and I shall not go amiss." 
And providence called him from his humble 
work-shop, as of old incarnate love called 
Peter, James, and John, from their fishing 
nets by the sacred sea. 



a fruitful MiU 




f 






'^c^^^> 



p. 47. 



CHAPTEE III. 

MISSION WOEK IN THE WILDERNESS. 

The venerable John Adams, LL. D., the 
father of the late Rev. Dr. William Adams, 
of New York City, became interested in 
Mr. Paxson and in his volunteer service for 
the Sunday-school cause. " Father Adams " 
was the kind of man likely to discover his 
longing to be employed in christian work, 
and his burning desire to save the children 
of the land from ignorance and vice, for he 
was himself of like mind.* When death 

*C. F. P. Bancroft, Principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, 
Mass., writes: 

" John Adams, LL. D., was of the same ancestry as the Presi- 
dents, John and John Quincy Adams ; born at Canterbury, Ct., 
in 1772, graduated at Yale in 1795, and a teacher nearly forty 
years, being the principal of Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., 
from 1810 to 1833. This admirable teacher, by his high social 
connections, his scholarship, his rare teaching power, and above 
all, by his profound, earnest, and sympathetic religious character, 
imparted an impulse which will never die to the institution into 
which he came as a new moral force. Literally hundreds of 
young men in the academy were directed by him into the chris- 
tian ministry. He held prayer-meetings with his pupils at his 
home, and revivals were frequent and powerful. From ] 833 till 

(47) 



48 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

was near, this good man said : " Do not place 
LL. D. nor any title upon my tombstone, 
but write — 

"A lover of children, 
A guide of youth, 
A sinner saved by grace." 

This excellent man recommended Mr. 
Paxson to the American Sunday-School 
Union, and was instrumental in procuring 
for him a commission in that Society in the 
year 1848. 

Mr. A. W. Corey, then Superintendent 
of Missions in the Valley of the Mississippi, 
was instructed by the Society to employ 
one Stephen Paxson, if upon inquiry he 
was found to be a suitable person to act as 
a missionary. Mr. Corey had never heard 
of such a man, but meeting Mr. Knapp, a 

his death in 1863, he was equally active in Illinois in religious 
work, traveling all over the state and planting more than five 
hundred Sunday-schools, till it was said that he was more useful 
even in his old age than he had been in his prime. He was a 
handsome man, elegant in his mariners, and of commanding 
presence." 

The picture of him on another page is from a photograph of 
a portrait now in possession of Phillips Academy, presented to it 
by the more " famous, but not more gifted son," the late Rev. Wil- 
liam Adams, D. D., LL. D., President of Union Theological Sem- 
inary, New York. — Editor American S. 8. Union. 



MISSION WORK IN THE WILDERNESS. 49 

lawyer, whose home was in Winchester, 111., 
he asked him if he could give him any in- 
formation concerning this Mr. Paxson, who 
had been recommended to the Society as a 
missionary. 

Mr. Knapp replied very promptly, " Rest 
assured, sir, that if Stephen Paxson under- 
takes to organize Sunday-schools or any- 
thing else, he will do it." 

The salary offered him by the Society 
was one dollar for every day he worked, 
less than three hundred and sixty-five dol- 
lars a year, as he must necessarily lose 
some days. This amount did not appear to 
him sufficient to support a family of six 
children in a village, so he determined at 
once to move to the country. 

Where to go was the great question; 
money, the result of years of labor, had 
been lost in consequence of his kind-heart- 
edness in going security for a friend. The 
sale of his town property was not sufficient 
to purchase a farm and provide the neces- 
sary outfit. He had faith to think the way 
would be opened — and it was. 

At this undecided moment a relative of 
4 



50 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

his wife offered him land, to be paid for in 
his own time. It was a forest entirely un- 
improved ; but no undertaking seemed too 
great, if thereby he could place himself in 
a position which would enable him to con- 
tinue his chosen work. 

The offer was accepted. A sad farewell 
was taken of pleasant home and kind 
friends. In large covered wagons the 
family proceeded to a wilderness in Pike 
county, Illinois, where no home was ready 
to receive them. 

But soon a rude log cabin, formed of 
trees felled in the forest, was raised for 
them on Hickory Hill. Its immense fire- 
place, its rough exterior, the fact that as yet 
it had no doors or windows, made it a place 
of wonderful interest to the children. 

Yet the first night spent in it was for 
them a time of fear. Blankets were hung 
over windows and doorway. Owls hooted 
upon the roof in dismal terrifying tones. 
The wolves barked fiercely as they passed, 
and nothing prevented them from entering 
but the presence of a dog who, had they 
known it, was afraid of them, and added his 



MISSION WORK IN THE WILDERNESS. 51 

whine to the boding voices of the forest. 
In the middle of the night the dog crept 
stealthily under the blanket hanging over 
the doorway, and longing for companion- 
ship in his fear, laid his cold nose on the 
hand of a sleeping child. 

"A wolf! a wolf! A wolf is eating us 
up ! " was the alarming shriek that rang out 
on the startled ears of the parents. 

A light was struck and the dog dis- 
covered. " I am afraid he hasn't the true 
missionary spirit," said his master; "if he 
has, he will soon get accustomed to his new 
life, and be your protector when I am far 
away." The thought of what such nights 
would be, and father absent, was sufficiently 
dreadful to keep open the sleepiest eyes. 

Men were employed to clear the woods 
and make rails for fencing. Soon every- 
thing was in progress and the missionary 
started out upon his journey. With horse 
and buggy he traversed the places destitute 
of all religious instruction. He usually 
avoided towns, and sought out the lonely 
cabin on the hill-side, the solitary school- 
house in the woods or on the prairie. 



52 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

His wife was left in this wild habitation, 
where the wolf could look in at the open 
door, and the noise of the wild-cat was fre- 
quently heard, with no companions but her 
children, and no guard save the eye of Him 
who neither slumbers nor sleeps. 

But the thoughts of the lonely traveler 
were often with them as he wandered day 
after day through scenes as wild, or rested 
beneath roofs which seemed even humbler 
than his own, because no dear ones wel- 
comed him there ; finding instead strangers, 
whose acquaintance must be made, whose 
friendship must be won, if he would succeed 
in his mission to them. 

He met all kinds of people, as a Yew days' 
ride would sometimes bring him from the 
door of the woodman's hut to the home of 
wealth and refinement. At each place he 
was equally at his ease, for he had the 
power of adapting himself to circumstances. 
The educated forgave him his blunders in 
grammar and pronunciation on account of 
his fresh and original ideas, while the uncul- 
tivated were fascinated by his songs, and 
won by his racy anecdotes. 



MISSION WOBX IN THE WILDERNESS. 53 

It was his business as missionary to visit 
all the people in a neighborhood where 
there was no Sunday-school ; to invite them 
to hold a meeting for purposes of organiza- 
tion ; to address them at this meeting; to 
instruct them as to the best methods of con- 
ducting a school, and to provide them with 
necessary books and papers. The igno- 
rance and the eagerness, the opposition and 
encouragement, which constantly met him, 
furnished him with matter for reflection 
upon his long rides. 

The weariness of the way was often re- 
lieved by little incidents and adventures, 
which he could narrate so well that more 
than half the interest of the story was in the 
graphic style of its portrayal ; indeed, it is a 
hopeless task to write out anecdotes and 
give them half the force and vividness they 
possessed when, electrified by his magnetism, 
they came warm from his heart as illustra- 
tions of his experiences in his chosen work. 

The little incidents of his travels could 
always be used with effect in his speeches. 
A story to the point was far more convinc- 
ing to the country people than any amount 



54 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

of abstract reasoning. He was a shrewd 
judge of human nature. By the time he 
had canvassed a neighborhood, he knew 
just the story he could relate that would tell 
upon his audience. 

He would go early to the place of meet- 
ing, and light up the rude house with tallow 
candles. As the people came in the gath- 
ering twilight, on horseback and in wagons 
from various directions, they would hearken 
to his clear, sweet, pathetic voice in the old 
house, singing : 

" I'm a pilgrim and I'm a stranger, 
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night." 

They had come to hear him speak, be- 
cause he had interested them in their 
homes ; but often they felt that his singing 
repaid them for coming before he began 
his address. 

If the object he aimed at in that particu- 
lar neighborhood was to show them the ig- 
norance which existed among the young, 
and hence the necessity for religious instruc- 
tion, he would illustrate his remarks by 
some such story as the following : 

"I met a boy on the road one day. I 



3IISSI0N WORK IN THE WILDERNESS. 55 

stopped my horse and inquired of him the 
way to Mr. Brown's house. The lad was 
walking, so I asked him to get into my 
buggy and ride. As we jogged along I 
asked him some questions, as is always my 
custom, in the hope of awakening some in- 
terest in his young mind for something 
above the sordid affairs of time. I began 
by asking him his age. ' Fourteen,' was 
the reply. I then inquired if he could tell 
me who died to save sinners. He re- 
sponded promptly : 'Nobody has died for 
sinners in our neighborhood; leastways, if 
anybody has, I never hearn tell of it.' 

I asked him if he would like to' have a 
book which would tell him all about who 
died to save sinners. 

" ' Oh ! yes,' was the response. ' I'd give 
a heap for a book, for I've been wanting 
something besides my old speller for a long 
time.' 

" How much would you give ? " I in- 
quired. 

" He pulled out a handful of marbles and 
an old knife from his pocket, saying : 

" 'All I've got, these 'ere.' 



56 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" I explained to him that if he would at- 
tend the Sunday-school I was about to 
organize near his home, he could get a new 
book to read every Sunday, and for noth- 
ing. He was delighted at the prospect, 
and said if his father would let him off from 
the fishing and hunting trips on that day, 
he would come ' certain.' " 

When years had passed by, Mr. Paxson 
learned the sequel to this story — to the 
effect that this ignorant boy was awakened 
to a new life in that Sunday-school, and was 
diligently pursuing a course of study in a 
distant college preparatory to entering the 
ministry. 

' Another incident, which occurred in his 
work, he used to draw attention to the 
wants of a school as regarded books and 
the superior advantages these afford the 
scholar in mastering the lesson. It is given 
as nearly as possible in his own words : 

" I was once organizing a Sunday-school, 
and, in the course of my remarks, I made 
the assertion that a child who had had the 
advantages of a Sunday-school education 
knew more of the Scriptures at ten years 



MISSION WORK IN THE WILDERNESS. 57 

of age than a young man of twenty did 
when I was young. After the meeting was 
over, a man said to me : ' Did I understand 
you to say that a boy of ten knows more 
now than a man of twenty used to?' 

"'No, my friend; I said a boy who has 
had the advantages of a Sunday-school 
knows more at ten about his Bible, than a 
young man of twenty knew when I was 
young.' 

" 'Well, I don't believe it, anyhow.' 

"'I am sorry,' I replied, 'that there is no 
Sanday-school scholar present to test it.' 

"A lady standing by said : ' There is a 
Sunday-school scholar over at my house; 
he came just before the meeting.' 

"'Come,' I said, 'we will find this boy 
and see.' 

"He agreed to the proposal, and on our 
way over I inquired how old he was. He 
said, " Fifty years." 

" ' How long have you been a professor 
of religion?' 

" ' Thirty years,' he replied. 

" ' Now, my friend, if we find this boy, I 
will ask you some questions; and, if you 



58 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

don't answer them, have you any objection 
to the boy's answering?' 

" ' None, if they are fair questions.' 

" ' You need not answer them, if they are 
not.' 

" Upon reaching the house we found a 
bright-eyed boy some ten years of age. I 
asked him how long he had been a member 
of a Sunday-school ? 

"'Eighteen months,' was the reply. 

" ' Did you have a book in your Sunday- 
school called the "Child's Scripture Ques- 
tion Book ? " ' 

" ' Oh, yes ! that was the first book I 
studied.' 

" I knew then what questions to ask him. 
I said to the gentleman : ' How many books 
are contained in the Old Testament ? ' 

" He studied awhile, and then said : ' I 
give it up.' 

"'Can you tell?' I asked the boy. He 
replied correctly. 

" I said to the gentleman, ' Perhaps you 
have been a New Testament scholar; tell 
me how many books are contained in the 
New Testament?' 



MISSION WORK IN THE WILDERNESS. 59 

" He began counting on his fingers, Mat- 
thew, Mark, Luke, John, and so on. He 
made the number twenty-six. 

" ' Is he right, my son ? ' I inquired of the 
boy. 

" ' No, sir ; there are twenty-seven.' 

" What is the first book in the Bible V I 
asked the man. He responded ' Genesis.' 
I said : 

"'Right; you have answered one to the 
boy's two. Now please give the definition 
of Genesis?' 

" He replied, gruffly, ' I never studied 
Dictionary.' 

" I asked the boy. He replied, ' I think it 
means "creation" or "beginning."' 

"I took a Bible Dictionary from my 
satchel and showed him that the boy was 
right; for otherwise he would not have 
believed either of us. 

"He sprang to his feet, exclaiming — 

" ' I understand you, sir ; you have had 
this little shaver out in the hazel brush, 
training him to answer these questions.' 

" I soo\i proved by the lady that I had 
never seen the child before. Then I 



60 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

handed him the Bible, and told him to ask 
the boy any question he saw fit. He soon 
threw down the book, saying : 

"'Why, he knows more than I do at 
fifty!' 

" I responded, ' He is, perhaps, no smarter 
naturally than you were, but he has had ad- 
vantages of which you and I never dreamed. 
There was no " Child's Scripture Question 
Book" in our school-days. Truth had not 
been simplified to the comprehension of a 
child ; your sole literature was " Dilworth's 
Spelling Book" and " Sindbad the Sailor," 
while I had even less.'" It is needless to 
add that the man was in favor of buying a 
Sunday-school library, and so were all the 
audiences to whom the story was told. 



|i ^rahful fife 




CHAPTER IV. 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS ON THE FRONTIER. 

After weeks, sometimes months of ab- 
sence, during which our Sunday-school mis- 
sionary faced the winter's storm or the 
summer's sun, never hearing once during 
all the time from the loved ones at home — 
as it was before railroads covered the west, 
and it was impossible for him to foretell his 
route, or know just when he would reach or 
pass a given point where a letter . might 
reach him — the return was indeed joyous. 
But for a long time after the removal, what 
mountains of work he found awaiting his 
tireless energy ! Reports must be made out 
of his monthly labors. Letters must be 
written and books ordered for needy schools. 
Besides, there were fences still to build, as 
hired help worked slowly without a master's 
presence ; brush-piles to be burned, and 
ground to be plowed. 

The young people from some distant 

(61) 



62 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

farm would hear that the missionary had 
come home and spent his evenings burning 
brush-piles and log-heaps. Attracted by his 
cheery ways, they would come to lend help- 
ing hands. He would meet them with a 
glad greeting : " I knew I should get through 
in some way; for God always helps him who 
helps himself." 

The hill-side was all aglow with burning 
brush-piles and great fiery logs, among 
which the young people flitted, adding fresh 
fuel to the flames, the girls throwing on 
brush, the young men with long spikes roll- 
ing up the logs and piling them upon each 
other, while the voice of the missionary led 
in some familiar hymn which rang out fresh 
and free over the surrounding woods, to the 
astonishment of wild beast and bird. Such 
descriptions as: 

" My heavenly home is bright and fair, 
No sin or sorrow enter there ; 
Its glittering towers the sun outshine ; 
That heavenly mansion shall be mine," 

furnished a fitting and impressive contrast 
to the rudeness of present surroundings. 
Only a few short days could be spent at 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 63 

home — and these were by no means days 
of rest — when again he must go forth upon 
his broader and more fruitful fields. 

The burden of responsibility resting on 
his wife was great. There was no school 
within reach of the younger children. The 
older ones could attend a very poor one at 
a distance; but some one must carry a gun 
for protection against the possible attack of 
a hungry wolf. On one occasion they 
broke through the ice in attempting to 
cross the numerous and unbridged streams, 
and upon reaching home frozen boots and 
shoes had to be cut away from their weary 
feet. After several similar disasters the 
children at last gave up the difficult under- 
taking, and read and re-read the few books 
in their father's small library, one which he 
had collected since his conversion in the 
Sunday-school. He had organized a Sun- 
day-school at the nearest house as soon as 
possible, but its small library was soon ex- 
hausted. 

It was an epoch in the lives of these chil- 
dren, when Mr. Corey, of St. Louis, sent to 
this cabin on the hill-side a book entitled 



64 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

"Old James, the Irish Pedlar." Brave in 
its blue covers, absorbing in its thrilling 
story, it was a treasure whose worth could 
only be estimated by the amount of pleas- 
ure it caused. 

" I wanted to buy it for you children," the 
father explained, " and I was casting the 
subject over in my mind as to whether I 
could afford to do so, when Mr. Corey said : 
' Do take this book to your children as a 
present from me. They must be very lonely 
during the long winter evenings when you 
are away.'" 

There was one feature connected with 
this frontier missionary life which was a 
great puzzle to the children, and in the 
solution of which even wiser heads might 
not agree. The extent and duration of Mr. 
Paxson's tours were seldom uniform, yet 
his wife predicted the day of his return 
with never-failing certainty. So often had 
she made special preparation for his coming 
on a certain day, and so invariably had he 
arrived at the expected time, although no 
message or letter had heralded his ap- 
proach, that the children felt sure of seeing 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 65 

him whenever she answered their query, 
" Will father come to-day?" in the affirma- 
tive. 

Bat upon one occasion she had told them 
several days in advance that he would come 
at a certain date ; yet when the morning 
came she said, " No, children ; he was 
coming, but he will not get here for some 
time, for he is very sick." When asked 
how she knew, she said she must have had 
a dream, for she saw him, and he was sick. 
The result proved that her fears were well 
founded, for he had intended reaching home 
at that time, but was detained in southern 
Illinois by a severe illness. 

At another time he was anxiously ex- 
pected. The forenoon passed slowly by; 
the afternoon still more slowly. Supper 
was over, and still no sign of an approach- 
ing traveler. The waiting family gathered 
about the hearth-stone. A slightly troubled 
look was in the mother's eye, but she said 
hopefully still, " He will surely come." 
Hours passed away; the fire burned low; 
the night was dark and stormy. At eleven 
o'clock the sound of some one approaching 

5 



66 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

was heard, and in a few moments a cold, 
muddy traveler, with dripping coat and hat, 
stood upon the warm hearth -stone. "I 
thought I'd come on," he said, " in spite of 
wind and weather, for I was sure mother 
would be expecting me." 

Mr. Paxson became more and more con- 
vinced, as he traversed still wider regions, 
of the importance of the work he had 
undertaken. With an enthusiasm which 
nothing daunted, he gave his best energies 
to it. His description on one occasion of 
an attempt to find the right man to act as 
Sunday-school superintendent, evinces the 
determination which characterized all his 
actions. 

" In a certain settlement in Illinois," said 
he, " I found some seventy or eighty chil- 
dren needing a Sunday-school. In canvass- 
ing to find the right man to act as super- 
intendent, I discovered, from what the peo- 
ple said, that there was but one available 
man for this place. I heard that he was an 
eastern man, and so felt sure that he would 
serve, as, in my experience, I have usually 
found eastern people willing to co-operate 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 67 

readily with me in my Sunday - school 
efforts. But when I came to see this man, 
he objected. He said he was a justice of 
the peace, and held some other offices of 
trust, and that the people must not expect 
to pile everything upon him. He added, 
that he was obliged to go at once to 
meet a person four miles away, but that I 
might put up my horse and remain until he 
returned. 

" I said, ' No ; I am going your way.' 

" I had just at that moment decided to do 
so, feeling that unless I succeeded in win- 
ning him as superintendent, my efforts to 
organize a school would not succeed. As 
we rode on at a rapid pace I urged him to 
accept the office. When I had run him 
about three miles I asked him to hold up a 
little. He checked his horse, and I said, 

" ' Some eighty children want you to take 
charge of a Sunday-school for them. You 
say you will not. Now, my friend, can you 
meet these children at the judgment-seat, 
and feel acquitted ? ' 

" This brought him to a full stop. He 
reflected a moment, his hand resting on the 



68 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

pommel of his saddle, and his eyes fixed 
on the distant prairie. Finally the answer 
came: 

" ' Well, if thej- all want me, I will serve.' 

" I then said, ' Now I will return, and 
make preparations for a meeting to-night.' 

" He looked at me in astonishment, and 
said, ' Did you come all this way just to get 
my consent V 

" On my return, his wife, who had heard 
our conversation at the wood-pile before we 
started, asked me if I had obtained her hus- 
band's consent. I told her that I had. She 
exclaimed, 'How glad I am! My husband 
used to be an officer in the church when we 
lived in the east; but since he came west, 
to this place remote from churches, he has 
grown cold. I am so glad we can once 
more have our children in the Sunday- 
school ! ' 

" Three months after the establishment 
of this school I visited it one Sunday, and 
conducted the exercises. At the close we 
held a prayer-meeting. I called upon any 
one who chose to do so to make a few re- 
marks. The superintendent arose and said 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 69 

he thanked God for that Sunday-school and 
me for my persistence in getting him to 
serve as superintendent; for in the past 
three months he had enjoyed life more than 
in all the eight years he had lived there pre- 
vious to its establishment ; in short, that the 
proper observance of the Sabbath had lent 
a new charm, an added beauty, to the six 
days of the week. 

"A church soon grew out of this Sunday- 
school, as a fair flower out of a brown and 
insignificant seed, and its influence was 
widely felt over all that section of country. 
The superintendent became a leading 
member and officer in this church." 

It was an accustomed saying with Mr. 
Paxson, that " He is a fool who neglects an 
opportunity." Acting on this maxim, he 
labored in season and out of season with 
equal success. Upon one occasion he came 
upon an immense Fourth of July mass- 
meeting. He was soon called upon for a 
patriotic speech. 

"That is not in my line," he responded; 
" but if you really wish to hear me, I will 
give you a Sunday-school talk." 



70 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

He was urged to proceed. Mounting 
the platform, he soon had the crowd cheer- 
ing as lustily for Sunday-schools, as they 
had before done for the old Declaration of 
Independence, although he did not ignore 
this, but used it as a foundation upon which 
to base his Sunday-school superstructure. 
Intensely practical in all his methods, he 
could not let such an occasion pass with 
only a harvest of words — deeds must 
follow; so he requested some one person 
present from each district of the neighbor- 
ing country, where there was no Sunday- 
school, to come forward and give him his 
name and the name of his school-house. 
Thirty men responded, and he soon had a 
list of such school-house names as " Cracker 
Bend," " Mosquito Creek," " Big Muddy," 
" Hoosier Prairie," " Loafer Grove," " String- 
town," and " Buckhorn." In a few short 
weeks he had a flourishing school in each 
of these thirty school-houses, the outcome 
of his unpremeditated Fourth of July ora- 
tion. 

In his wildest days he had never acquired 
any bad habits save that of using tobacco, 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 71 

of which he was inordinately fond. After 
he began his Sunday-school work, he would 
cut the tobacco into little bits in order that 
he might slip one into his mouth unper- 
ceived, after finishing a speech. One even- 
ing he was holding a Sunday-school meet- 
ing in a small town, when he noticed a boy 
apparently about twelve years old watching 
him very closely. After the meeting was 
over, and he had come down from the 
pulpit, this boy came up to him and said, in 
free western fashion : " Brother Paxson, 
give us a chaw of tobacker ! " 

"What! do you use tobacco?" 

" Yes, sir," said the boy, " I have used it 
ever since I was a little fellow." 

A bystander explained, " That boy looks 
like he was scarcely twelve years old — he is 
really past eighteen; he has been stunted 
in his growth by tobacco." 

Immediately the missionary emptied his 
pocket of tobacco, throwing it all away, say- 
ing, " By the grace of God I will never use 
another bit of tobacco while I live." And 
he never did. 

The following story he used to tell as an 






72 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

illustration of how the most persistent op- 
position to what is good may be overcome 
by equally persevering efforts in its behalf. 
He always enjoyed the ludicrous element in 
the tale, its strong flavor of backwoods 
life : 

" In a log school-house, on the banks of 
the ' Grand Chariton/ in Missouri, after I 
had finished making a speech in favor of 
establishing a Sunday-school, a plainly 
dressed farmer arose and said he would 
like to make a few remarks. I said, ' Speak 
on, sir.' 

" He said to the audience, pointing across 
the room at me, ' I've seen that chap before. 
I used to live in Macoupin county, Illinois, 
and that man came there to start a school. 
I told my wife that when Sunday-schools 
came around game got scarce, and that I 
would not go to his school or let any of my 
folks go. It was not long before a railroad 
came along, so I sold out my farm for a 
good price and moved to Pike county. I 
hadn't been there more than six months 
before that same chap came to start a 
Sunday-school. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 73 

" ' I said to my wife, " That Sunday-school 
fellow is about; so I guess we'd better 
move to Missouri." Land was cheaper in 
Missouri, so I came and bought me a farm 
and went back for my family. I told them 
Missouri was a fine state, game plenty, and 
better than all, no Sunday-school there. 

" ' Day before yesterday I heard that there 
was to be a Sunday-school lecture at the 
school-house by some stranger. Says I to 
my wife, " I wonder if it can be possible that 
it is that Illinoisan ! " I came here myself 
on purpose to see, and, neighbors, It's the 
very same chap ! 

" ' Now, if what he says about Sunday- 
school is true, it's a better thing than I 
thought. If he has learned so much in 
Sunday-school, I can learn a little, so I've 
just concluded to come to Sunday-school 
and to bring my seven boys.' 

" Putting his hand in his pocket, he pulled 
out a dollar, and coming to the stand where 
I was, laid it down, saying, ' That'll help buy 
a library. For, neighbors,' he added, ' if I 
should go to Oregon or California, I'd expect 
to see that chap there in less than a year.' 



74 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

"Some one in the audience spoke up — 
1 You are treed.' 

" ' Yes,' he said, ' I am treed at last. Now 
I am going to see this thing through, for if 
there is any good in it, I am going to have 
it.'" 

One of the missionary's returns to the 
new-made home on Hickory Hill was very 
sad. He had labored for weeks, finding 
some encouragement, but also many ob- 
stacles in his way. The roads he traversed 
were bad ; the storms he encountered un- 
usually violent. In some cases he had to 
work with great care and diligence to 
awaken any interest in the minds of the 
people he had come to serve. Now, weary 
and worn, he was returning home, wonder- 
ing what events might have passed, what 
changes might have occurred in the family 
circle during his prolonged absence. He 
noticed, as he neared the house, that there 
were no merry children perched upon the 
high gate, their favorite out-look, from 
whence they were wont to watch for his 
possible return. Everything was still. 
Even the dog moved slowly and quietly to 






SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 75 

meet him. Fear sat at his heart, dread 
blanched his cheek, as he pushed aside the 
half-open door, and looked in upon a group 
gathered in tears about the cradle. 

"She cannot live," was the whispered 
greeting of his wife's pale lips as he joined 
the mournful circle. 

And she did not. A few days later a sol- 
itary wagon, containing the stricken family 
and a little coffin, moved slowly along the 
wood-path to a lonely grave in the forest. 
Startled by the noise of approaching steps, 
several wolves sped wildly down the hollow, 
the sound of their sharp bark striking 
harshly upon the ears of the mourners. 
The children were heart-broken at the idea 
of laying the youngest darling in her dark, 
narrow bed, amidst such surroundings, with 
wild beasts about her, and the hoot of the 
solitary owl for her nightly lullaby. 

With saddened heart the father brushed 
the tears from his eyes, and prepared to go 
forth upon his next journey. He felt a 
renewed consecration to his work, the con- 
secration of sorrow. He was more tender 
than ever to the children for whose salva- 



76 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

tion he labored, and he talked to them as 
never before. His experience was an illus- 
tration of a favorite truth with him : 

"Thy soul must overflow, if thou 
Another soul wouldst reach ; 
It needs the overflow of heart 
To give the lips full speech." 

People began to call him the " Children's 
Preacher," and the "Apostle to the Chil- 
dren," and he labored humbly but earnestly 
to be worthy of the titles. 

His addresses were entirely extempora- 
neous. They came direct from the heart, 
and seldom missed their aim, but lodged in 
the hearts of his hearers and were treas- 
ured there. They had also the merit of 
brevit}^. 

" If I were a superintendent," he said one 
day, " I would rarely permit any one to 
make an address to my school. Speakers 
are apt to take time that ought to be em- 
ployed in the study of the Bible. I never 
want to hinder for one moment the oppor- 
tunity of these half-hour preachers." 

And he carried out this idea. A friend, 
who was present at the time, says : " He 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 77 

made a few more good earnest remarks, and, 
just at the right time, stopped in the face 
of the temptation of an invitation from both 
superintendent and pastor to say on a little 
longer. Good for you, Father Paxson ! my 
heart exclaimed jubilantly, as he resolutely 
shook his white head and marched off the 
platform. Though every eye was sparkling 
with attention, every ear attuned to listen, 
every countenance radiant with interest, 
yet he had the rare prudence to know when 
to stop ! 

But while he appreciated the shadow-side 
of life's experiences, and was so moved by 
the pathetic that, as he expressed it, "the 
tear-cups in his eyes were constantly getting 
upset," he had also a rich vein of humor in 
his nature, and enjoyed the amusing to the 
full. 

One of his most difficult tasks was to con- 
vince ignorant country farmers that they 
were neglecting their families by their habit 
of paying more attention to the improvement 
of their stock than to the culture of their chil- 
dren. He would prove his position by a 
story from his own experience ; for, he would 



78 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 



say, " Facts are God's arguments, and I have 
always found them most available in pro- 
ducing conviction upon any subject," 

The story was as follows : " Upon one 
occasion I called upon a Mr. Allen, to ascer- 
tain his views in reference to organizing a 
Sunday-school in his vicinity. I found him 
engaged in peeling peaches upon the back 
porch. He asked me to take a chair and 
help myself to the fruit. While we were 
eating the peaches, I began the conversation 
by asking him if there was a Sunday-school 
in his neighborhood. 

"'No!' was the reply, 'and, as for me, I 
am down on edication ! it only makes thieves 
and rascals of people.' 

" I tried to show him that while a merely 
intellectual education might sometimes result 
in that way, such could never be the case 
were the education complete or threefold in 
its nature — physical, intellectual, and moral ; 
that as his children's physical powers would 
be developed in consequence of their work 
upon their farm, their mental capacity would 
be enlarged and strengthened in the common 
schools. What they needed besides was a 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL ON THE FRONTIER. 79 

moral and religious culture in the Sunday- 
school, where they would learn their duty to 
God and their obligations to man — that the 
moral education was of the utmost impor- 
tance, and was what the Sunday-school un- 
dertook to do for the child. I inquired how 
his children spent Sundays. 

"'Climb* trees and wear out their duds,' 
was the response. 

" l But,' I inquired, • would it nc l be better, 
simply on the score of economy, for them to 
be in Sunday-school instead of tearing out 
their clothes?' 

" 'Well, p'r'aps it would,' was the response. 
■ How much will it cost to run it ? ' 

" ( Nothing,' I replied. 

"'What! are you coming here to teach 
school for nothing ? ' 

" • No,' I explained, • you know Mr. Green 
and wife, who live above here ; they have con- 
sented to take classes. How many children 
have you old enough to attend school?' 

" ' Wall ! let me see.' He began counting 
on his fingers. He made a mis-count. 'Kitty ! 
Kitty ! ' he called, ' come here, wife, and 
name over the children while I count ; this 



80 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

man wants to know how many children we 
have old enough to go to Sunday-school.' 

"They made the number thirteen. I 
looked off to the meadow, and saw a drove 
of hogs feeding upon the clover. 

"'How many hogs have you over there?' 
I inquired. 

" ' Eighty-three fine, fat fellows,' he 
promptly responded. 

"'Now, see here, my friend; when I ask 
you how many children you have over five 
years of age, you are obliged to call your wife 
to help you count them; but when I ask 
you how many hogs you have, you answer 
without hesitation. Where, now, is your 
mind ? Upon your children or upon your 
hogs?' 

"He looked up at me with a laugh and 
said, 'I acknowledge, old hoss, you've got 
me ; it's too much on the hogs ! " 

" Two years afterward I called upon this 
farmer again. I found that he had joined the 
church, as had also two of his sons. He 
thanked me warmly for the change that had 
been wrought in his family by what he 
called my ' peach-basket speech.' " 




"K 



CHAPTER V. 

"ROBERT RAIKES," THE MISSIONARY HORSE. 

Mr. Paxson knew intuitively how to ap- 
proach the rudest and most uncultivated 
person, in order to win him to his own way 
of thinking. Upon one occasion, in at- 
tempting to organize a school in a heathen- 
ish district, he was, while addressing an 
audience in a school-house, called upon to 
fight by a man who was determined to dis- 
turb the meeting. He assured the man 
that if he would keep still he would attend 
to his case at the close of the services. 
The man took off his coat, rolled up his 
sleeves, and prepared to " square off." 
When the address was finished, the speaker 
told the man he was now ready to satisfy 
him. But lifting up his hand, he called the 
attention of the pugilist to the strong, mus- 
cular arm which God had given him. He 
then remonstrated with the fellow, asking 
him if he was not a democrat, and if he 

6 (81) 



82 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

did not remember that freedom of speech 
was a democratic principle, and that it was 
a most undemocratic proceeding to disturb 
a meeting where the only object was to do 
good by starting a Sunday-school. The 
man hesitated a moment, for the desire to 
fight was strong in him, and then said, " I 
believe you are right, ' old hoss ;' let's go 
over to Bob's and take a horn ! " 

While his labors as a missionary were be- 
coming more and more effective, the state 
of financial affairs at home was by no means 
prosperous. Much labor had been neces- 
sary to reduce the stumpy ground to agri- 
cultural order, while the money to hire 
necessary help was lacking. It was abso- 
lutely necessary that he should have a 
stronger horse for his travels ; no money 
was in the purse wherewith to purchase 
one ; yet he never allowed his anxious cares 
to overcloud the family, but carried them all 
to Him whom he trusted as a sympathizing 
brother. Though he knew not from whence 
the necessary means would come, he had 
faith that, in his own way, the Lord would 
provide, and that the needed horse would 



THE MISSIONARY HORSE. 83 

be secured in time for his next long journey. 
So he gathered the children in his arms, and 
sang for them the old Scotch songs he loved 
so well, or joined them in a mad game of 
blind man's buff with all the joyous abandon 
of the children themselves. 

And the horse came, as if in obedience 
to the call of faith abiding in this man's 
heart. He received a message from Rev. 
Wm. Carter, 'pastor of the Congregational 
Church of Pittsfield, to appear before his 
people one Sabbath morning to deliver an 
address on his work, as they were all desir- 
ous to hear how he was succeeding in his 
Sunday-school efforts. He went, and at 
the conclusion of his remarks a collection 
was taken up, which Mr. Carter proposed 
should be expended in the purchase of a 
missionary horse, as a testimonial of their 
appreciation of the work he was accom- 
plishing, and as the best method they could 
adopt to assist him in carrying it forward. 
To his surprise and joy the money was 
placed in his hands, with the suggestion 
that he might now turn his old horse out 



8 4 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

A grateful letter was sent to his wife, 
containing a message to the children that 
they should watch for his return upon a 
certain evening, and they would see a man 
weighing two hundred pounds come riding 
home on a sheep. Great was the excitement 
and various the speculations as to what this 
curious message could mean. The older ones 
guessed at once that he meant a small horse, 
possibly a pony, but they were non-com- 
mittal to the younger. 

At last he came, riding upon a small horse, 
and a shout of joy and admiration hailed the 
arrival. All gathered about to hear the horse 
named; and he tossed his mane as if in satis- 
faction when "Robert Raikes" was selected 
as the most appropriate name a Sunday- 
school horse could have.* 

* " Robert Raikes " was a small bay horse, left hind foot white, 
white or blaze face. He had a rather long neck and lengthy, 
compact round body, clean limbs, small bones, heavy muscle, and 
full, expressive eye. He was very sagacious, active, and spirited, 
but 'withal gentle and kind. One peculiarity, especially in his old 
age, was the great length of his hair, which was from three to 
four inches long, giving him a peculiar appearance, so the chil- 
dren would call him " Fremont's woolly horse." When spring 
came, with warm weather and green tender grass, he would shed 
his old coat and look like a new horse, a bright, beautiful bay. 



THE MISSIONARY HORSE. 85 

No one guessed, as he was led in tri- 
umph to the stable, what a work lay before 
him, what a history he would achieve ; how 
he would help organize more Sunday- 
schools than any other horse in the world 
— over seven hundred in number — how he 
would travel a distance nearly as great as 
thrice around the world in carrying his 
master about his chosen work ; that he 
would become so familiar to the children of 
several states, as to be known by them as 
"dear old Bob," and would be the means 
of distributing among them thousands of 
books and papers. Finally, that he would 
become known not only in the west, but 
also at the north and south, and in the far 
east ; that in such great cities as Philadel- 
phia, Boston, and New York, his history 
would be appreciated and his picture re- 
cognized and prized ; that at last, after 
twenty-five years of labor, he would die, 
and the newspapers and Sunday-school cir- 
culars of the land would publish this letter 
containing an account of his death, which 
sorrowful eyes in every state in the Union 
would read : 



86 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

Illinois, October 18, 1868. 

Dear Father : — I sit down this pleasant afternoon to tell you 
of the death of your faithful old servant, " Eobert Raikes." He 
had been declining gradually for the last six months. We have 
not had him harnessed more than once all summer. He ate two 
ears of corn on Friday last, and on Saturday night died in the 
clover lot. If, as some believe, horses have souls, " old Bob " 
will certainly occupy some better fields in the green pastures 
tlian those of the common herd. 

While looking at the remains of this faithful creature, I could 
not but ask myself this question, am I as faithful to my heav- 
enly Master as he has been to his earthly one? 

Your affectionate daughter, Mary. 

" How sad I felt," said Mr. Paxson, 
" when I heard that dear old Bob was dead. 
I felt as though I had lost a member of my 
family, and found the big tears rolling down 
my face. His quarter of a century in the 
Sunday-school work has left its mark upon 
the religious interests of a wide region. He 
was always faithful and obedient. When 
I bade him come he came, when I bade him 
go he went, and cheerfully, too. He never 
held back except when he met a child ; 
then he would always stop, and would never 
pass a church or school-house without trying 
to go up to it," 

Once a young man borrowed Bob to take 
a young lady out riding. He moved along 



THE MISSIONARY HORSE. 87 

in good style till he met the children coming 
home from school, then he stopped. The 
driver told him to " get up," but Bob would 
not move a peg. The young man flourished 
a whip, but Bob was evidently going to be 
obstinate. The children gathered around, 
much to the young man's discomfiture, but 
all at once he suspected what Bob was wait- 
ing for, so he made a little speech to the 
children, bade them "good-evening," shook 
the lines, and passed on. 

"In that day," says Zechariah, "shall 
there be upon the bells of the horses holi- 
ness unto the lord : " surely this might have 
been inscribed on old Bob's harness, for he 
was worn out carrying the Gospel. 

The following incident is given here as 
connected with the career of "Robert 
Raikes." It was written originally by Mr. 
Paxson to a Sunday-school in an eastern 
city, and was published in the New York 
Independent and other leading religious 
papers. 

-A SCENE IN A BLACKSMITH'S SHOP. 

" I drove up to a blacksmith's shop a few 
days since to get my horse shod. The 



88 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

blacksmith walked up to the horse and 
looked him square in the face, then turning 
to the people about said, ' I have shod hun- 
dreds of horses, and have seen thousands, 
but there ' (pointing to my horse) ' is the 
best countenance and best shaped head I 
ever saw ! ' 

" While he was shoeing him, I made some 
inquiries concerning a Sabbath-school, and 
told him my horse and myself were both 
missionaries. He immediately dropped the 
horse's foot, and, seating himself on the 
ground, said : 

" ' Stranger, let me give you a little of my 
history. I was an orphan boy, bound out 
to learn the blacksmith's trade. My master 
would not send me to school, but kept me 
hammering hot iron day and night until I 
was nineteen years old. About that time 
a Sunday-school man came to the settle- 
ment, and went around, telling the people 
to come out, and he would start a Sunday- 
school. So I got my day's work done and 
went to hear him. He told me a heap of 
good things, and among others that he him- 
self first went to Sunday-school when about 



THE MISSION AMY HORSE. 89 

thirty years old, and how much he learned 
and what a blessing it was to him. " Now," 
thinks I,' continued the blacksmith, ' " that's 
just my fix, and if he starts a school, I'll 
go." A school was started, and I went for 
two years. I soon learned to read my 
Bible, and the very day I was twenty-one I 
joined the church of Christ. For seven 
years I have been trying to serve Him. 
Last Sunday I was made the superintendent 
of a school here.' 

"I asked him where the school was, in 
which he learned to read and was con- 
verted to Christ. 

" i Oh ! more than a hundred miles from 
here,' he replied. 

" He gave me the name and all the par- 
ticulars of its organization. I then asked 
him if he would know the man who organ- 
ized that school. He did not know as he 
would, it had been so long ago, but rec- 
ollected that he was large, almost as large 
as myself. I then informed him that I was 
the person, and that that horse was along 
too. He sprang to his feet, exclaiming, 
' Blessed father, is it possible ? ' 



90 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" While my hand rested in his, the tears 
rolled down his cheeks like rain. He said : 
'All that I am I owe under God to that 
school. There I learned to read and to 
love my blessed Saviour.' He took me to 
his house and introduced me to his wife, a 
good Christian woman, the mother of two 
children. 

" When I offered to pay him, he said, 
' No ; never a cent for shoeing the mission- 
ary horse ! I will shoe him all his life for 
nothing, if 3^011 will bring him to me.' 

" To you this may not be particularly in- 
teresting, but to me it was one of the most 
pleasing incidents in my life. I felt that 
the starting of that one school was worth a 
lifetime of toil." 



CHAPTER VI. 

a missionary's experiences. 

The heart of the missionary was troubled 
about a subject very dear to him, the edu- 
cation of his children. They were growing 
up in ignorance. There seemed little pos- 
sibility that the situation of things, as re- 
garded educational advantages, would im- 
prove, as the farm was remote from any 
town. Again he determined to await some 
providential indication of what he was to 
do. He was ready to lose the fruit of all 
these years of improvement upon the farm, 
if he could thereby secure better educa- 
tional facilities for his family. 

The way was at last opened by the So- 
ciety offering to increase his salary, so he 
moved to Summer Hill, in the same county, 
in 1854. This little village had one long 
street running its entire length, and bor- 
dered on each side by neat white cottages 
embowered in trees. There were a church, 

(91) 



92 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

school-house, store, and post-office. The 
stage came through twice a week, and the 
driver heralded his approach by blasts upon 
a horn heard all over the village. Well- 
tilled farms lay all around, while here and 
there were lovely groves of forest trees. Ex- 
clamations of surprise at the beauty of the 
place often fell from the lips of passing 
travelers. As the family alighted at the 
door of their new home, its members felt as 
if transported to some earthly paradise. 

It was a settlement of eastern people, 
and the younger book-hungry children 
found, to their unspeakable delight, that 
there were books and papers in the house 
of every neighbor. The schoolmaster, per- 
haps, thought he had an undisciplined set 
of pupils added to his charge, when he dis-' 
covered that they had studied "A Child's 
Philosophy of Natural Objects" all by 
themselves, but had never looked at a line 
of the multiplication table. But their father 
was interested in their new studies. Though 
he had never in his life studied an arith- 
metic, when fractions puzzled their childish 
brains, he would take the slate and work a 



A MISSION ABTS EXPERIENCES. 93 

refractory example, saying, " I don't know 
what your book says, but this is my way of 
figuring. I learned it myself." So helpful 
was he to them that the teacher would some- 
times call and explain to him what the book 
had to say as regarded certain principles, in 
order that he might be still better able to 
assist them. 

His active mind never tired of trying to as- 
similate new ideas. He would say, " I don't 
know much; but it is a characteristic of my 
family, as far back as I can trace them, that 
they never became too old to learn." 

This was eminently true of himself. No 
subject, religious, political, or scientific, at- 
tracted public attention but he attempted to 
grasp it in all its bearings. He had taught 
himself to write, and his monthly reports 
and missionary letters which, whenever 
he was at home at the proper time, were 
written there, could now be mailed without 
taking a journey to the post-office, while 
his family enjoyed the arrival of a weekly 
newspaper. 

The following, though written later, is an 
example of his monthly missionary letters. 



94 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

It will furnish some idea of the work he was 
accomplishing. 

To the Rev. Mr. Willetts' Church, Phila- 
delphia :* 

Dear Young Friends:—! will now tell you something of what 
I have been doing for the last month. 

I have organized six new Sunday-schools, containing two hun- 
dred and ten scholars and thirty-eight teachers. I have aided 
thirteen others, containing five hundred and eighty-five scholars 
and one hundred and three teachers, making in all nineteen 
schools organized and aided, containing seven hundred and 
ninety scholars and one hundred and forty-one teachers. I have 
raised $82.40 for books and papers, and have donated $26.13, 
linking in all $108.53 worth of books and papers. I have dis- 
tributed over one thousand bound volumes, besides papers, 
hymn-books, Bibles and Testaments, dictionaries, and maps. 

These scnools are scattered over four counties in Central Il- 
linois. I have delivered twenty-three public addresses and over 
forty-six private ones. " Kobert Eaikes " has hauled me four 
hundred and thirty-five miles in the three weeks, through mud 
and mud holes, sloughs and rain, such as I have never seen 
before. We have come home tired and muddy. I have had a 
wonderful time getting through the sloughs. 

Perhaps you would like to hear the particulars of one of these 
adventures. 

I came to a slough the other day, drove up to the edge, and 
stopped. "Eaikes " looked at it, looked all around, then looked 
at me as much as to say, " It's going to be hard work to get 
through here." I got out of the buggy, and told " Eaikes " if 
he would take the buggy through, I would wade through ; so he 
started first, and I after him. 



* The Eev. A. A. Willetts, D. D., pastor of the West Arch 
Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. 



A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCES. 95 

When we got about to the middle of the slough, we came to a 
dead ox that had " mired down " a week before. This alarmed 
"Kobert Kaikes," and he got off the track. He jumped and 
tried to run, but the mud was so deep he could not. I tried to 
overtake him, but got into mud so deep that my boots came off, 
and I had to reach my arm down in the water and mud to find 
them. After I succeeded in finding my boots, I looked to see 
what had become of " Kaikes." Don't you think he had got out 
of the mud and had turned around and was looking at me and 
making a kind of noise ! Whether he was laughing at me or 
trying to say, " Come on, old missionary, I have got through," 
I can not say. He certainly was trying to tell me something, 
for he seemed to be so glad when I got through. 

And now, my young friends, if you could have seen me when 
I got out of that slough, you would not have known me. I washed 
the mud and dirt out of my eyes and out of my boots as well as I 
could, got into my buggy, and started off. Shortly after I met a 
boy, and he began to laugh at me. Said he, " Stranger, you are in 
a bad fix ; you must have come from under the ground. I would 
like to know what the color of your horse is? " I told him that 
before I got into that slough back yonder he was a bay horse, but 
that now he was black. He gave a hearty laugh and went on. 

That night I slept in a log cabin, where there was only one 
room, in which all the family cook, eat, and sleep. A storm 
came up during the night, and the sheep came up to the door ; so 
the old lady let them in, saying she was afraid the hail would 
kill the lambs. There we were — grown folks, children, mission- 
ary, sheep, and all together. When the family found out who I 
was, they were glad to see me. They had heard of me, but had 
never met me before. They treated me very kindly, but they had 
no corn for "Robert Eaikes ; " so I turned him out to graze. 
Next morning he was clean and nice. The rain had washed all 
the mud off him. 

My dear friends, these are incidents of but one day and night. 
I give them to you that you may have correct views of mission- 
ary life in the west. I got home very weary. Oh, what a luxury 



96 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

two weeks' rest with my family would be ! but I dare not stop to 
rest. When I stop, the work stops on my field ! I allow myself 
four days at home, and in these I have my reports to make out 
and letters to write, so that every moment of time is taken up. 

While I am writing this letter my family are all asleep, ex- 
cept one little girl, nine years old. She is lying on a pallet near 
me, and is quite unwell. She has just said to me, " Father, how 
long will you stay at home this time? " 

" Two days more," I answered. 

" Only two ? " said she. " I do wish you would stay longer ; 
we are so lonesome when you are gone! " 

The hardships, trials, and difficulties, my dear friends, which 
I meet with away from home are nothing when compared to the 
tender ties that bind the missionary's heart to the loved ones at 
home. But why should I dwell on this? The Lord has called 
me to this work, and I dare not shrink from it. Bless His holy 
name for having made me the instrument in His hands of doing 
some good ! 

But oh what a work there is yet to be done ! When I look 
over this mighty field, the little I can do seems like " the voice of 
one crying in the wilderness." There are hundreds of thousands 
of children in this state that were never in a Sunday-school, and 
the American Sunday-School Union is the only institution that 
can reach this large number of children. 

May the Lord bless you all, is my prayer ! 

Stephen Paxson, 
Missionary of the American Sunday-School Union. 

Summer Hill, Ills.. June, 1859. 



Mr. Paxson often repeated the saying : 
" Analyze it as you will, human nature is a 
curious compound." His experiences with 
so many different people had fully demon- 
strated this to his own mind. He used the 



A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCES. 97 

following occurrence as an example of people 
who are thoroughly in favor of every good 
thing in their talk, but who will never work 
in any good cause. 

" I was once traveling in northern Missouri, 
when I met a talkative old lady. When I told 
her I was a missionary, I could scarcely get 
a word in ' edgeways ' for her praise of Sun- 
day-schools. ' She always believed in them, 
they were the best institutions in the world, 
they did a vast amount of good,' and so forth. 

" ' Well, madam, I suppose you have a 
Sunday-school in this neighborhood ? ' 
' "'Oh, yes!' 

" ' Who is your superintendent ? ' 

" ' Wall, rally, I've forgot. John ! ' calling 
her son from the yard, 'come here!' 

" ' Who is the superintendent of that Sun- 
day-school ? ' 

"'What Sunday-school, mam?' 

" ' That Sunday-school where you and sis 
went last fall across the prairie in the 
timber.' 

" ' Why, mam, there ain't any Sunday- 
school over there and never was. Sis and I 
went to gather hazel-nuts.' 
7 



98 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" I sometimes find such friends to the Sun- 
day-school," he would observe, " but I would 
a thousand times rather meet an open enemy. 
When an open enemy is converted to the 
cause, I expect action on his part and am 
sure to get it; but such friends are the curse 
of every good cause." 

In the same part of the state, Mr. Paxson 
had another little experience which shows 
how utterly some people fail to comprehend 
the idea of christian unity. He was some- 
times blunt in his address. He was sensi- 
tive to the state of the spiritual atmosphere 
which envelops people, and prepared him- 
self accordingly. He either bristled with 
pointed assertions to stir them up, or 
smoothed the feathers of opposition the right 
way to calm them down, as seemed to him 
the mode of procedure most likely to lead to 
final success. 

Upon this occasion he entered a house one 
day, and asked a woman who was sitting by 
the fire-place, if there was a Sunday-school 
in the neighborhood. 

" ' No, there ain't,' was the curt reply. 

"'Don't you think you could have one?' 



A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCES. 99 

" ' Might have a Methodist one/ she re- 
plied. 

" ( Madam/ he said quietly, but with em- 
phasis, ' there are no Methodists in heaven.' " 

" She sprang to the door and opened it as 
if to order him out. But feminine curiosity 
as to what he would say, prevailed, and hesi- 
tating, she said, ' Presbyterians, I suppose ! ' 

" ' No, madam, my Bible does not teach 
me that there are any Presbyterians in 
heaven.' 

" ' Baptists, I reckon ? ' 

" ' No, madam, my Bible does not say that 
there are any Baptists in heaven.' 

" i Well, who are there ? ' she inquired with 
a nonplussed air. 

"'Christians, madam.' 

"'Oh ! you're a Campbellite then ?' 

" ' No, madam, my Bible doesn't say there 
are any Campbellites there.' 

" ' What! are you a Roman Catholic ? 

" ' No, madam ; if you wish to know to 
what particular church I belong I am a 
Methodist.' 

" ' Why, I thought you said no Methodist 
would go to heaven.' 



100 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" ' Oh, no ! I said there were no Methodists 
in heaven ; we leave our distinctive names 
here. There we are known as followers of 
Christ.' 

"Closing the door quickly, she grasped 
his hand warmly, saying, ' Do take a chair, 
brother ; I opened the door to order you 
out. I am mighty glad I didn't — I'm a 
Methodist' " 

He had always been quite fastidious 
about his food. This was a thorn in the 
flesh which he set seriously to work to sub- 
due, for he found all sorts of fare upon so 
many different tables. It would never do 
to manifest the slightest dislike to what 
was placed before him, or to refrain from 
partaking of things obnoxious to him, as, 
for instance, the often recurring biscuits, 
yellow as gold with saleratus and fried in 
fat. 

He must be all things to all men if thereby 
he might win some, in even so personal a 
subject as his daily bread. In this, as in 
most things he attempted, he succeeded, as 
the following narrative recited by himself 
will show. 



A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCES. 101 

CORN BREAD ON A LOG. 

" In a steep hollow near the Mississippi 
river, I came to a primitive log-cabin, built 
of round logs with the bark still adhering. 
There were four white-headed, bare-footed 
boys standing in the doorway. I inquired 
for their parents. The oldest boy replied 
that his mother was dead, and his father was 
up on the hill chopping. I drove ' Robert 
Raikes ' to the foot of the hill and hitched 
him. Then I climbed the hill, guided by 
the sound of the axe, until I found the 
man. I introduced myself as a Sunday- 
school missionary, and asked him a few 
questions. Without answering me, he looked 
up at the sun and said : ' Stranger, it's about 
twelve o'clock, my dinner time. Let's go 
down to the cabin ! ' • 

" We reached the house and he invited 
me in. The only article of furniture I could 
see was a three-legged stool, upon which 
he invited me to be seated. He went to 
the fire-place and with a stick lifted the lid 
off a skillet which contained two loaves of 
corn-bread, which he had put to bake be- 
fore going out to work in the morning. I 






102 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

wondered what he was going to do with it, 
as there was no table in the house. He car- 
ried the skillet to a log which had the top 
side flattened, and lay near the door. He 
turned the bread out upon this log. He 
then placed the skillet over the coals, and 
taking a large butcher's knife from the belt 
around him, and which he carried for the 
purpose of skinning deer, he cut slices from 
a flitch of bacon which hung in one corner 
and placed them to fry. 

" When the meat was done he set the ves- 
sel on the log beside the bread, and invited 
me out to dinner. I sat on one end of the 
log, the man on the other, and the four boys 
stood, two on each side. I used my pocket- 
knife in partaking of this simple repast. 

" When we had finished dinner, I told my 
host what a good thing a Sunday-school was, 
and that I was to have a meeting that night 
at the school-house, a half mile away, and 
that I wanted to see him and his boys at 
my meeting. 

" He wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his 
hunting-shirt, and said : ' Stranger, I will 
come ; for a man that ain't ashamed to eat 



A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCES. 103 

fat meat and corn bread off a log has got 
something good to tell, and I am coming to 
hear what it is, though I never had any 
education.' 

" That night a school was organized and a 
library procured. This man and his boys 
were placed together in a class ; but, a few 
years afterward, so rapid had been his im- 
provement, he was elected superintendent 
of the school. 

" Some ten years after this, I was attend- 
ing a Sunday-school convention in one of the 
counties of the state, when a young man 
came up, clasped my hand and called my 
name, and asked me if I remembered organ- 
izing a school at a place w T here I ate dinner 
out of doors off a log with a man and his 
boys. I recalled the place at once. The 
young man said, ' I am the oldest of those 
boys, the one who told you where father was 
chopping. I shall always thank my Heav- 
enly Father that you led my earthly father 
into the Sunday-school. It was the means 
under God of his conversion and of my own. 
A large church has grown out of that school, 
and I am a delegate from that church to this 
convention.' 



104 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

"It was difficult for me to realize that 
this intelligent young man, a delegate to 
the convention from a large country church 
some seventy miles away, was indeed the 
very white-haired boy I had met at the 
cabin in the woods." 



CHAPTER VII. 

ROSES AND THORNS. 

The Society for which Mr. Paxson had 
labored so long and so zealously called him 
in the year 1856 from his solitary backwoods 
travels to the east, to speak in behalf of 
the work of the Sunday-School Union, before 
the cultured audiences of great cities. The 
change was indeed great from lonely rides 
in "Jimtown Hollow" or along the sides 
of " Buffalo Knobs," to the rush and roar of 
Broadway. 

But he enjoyed every fresh experience in 
life with zest. He was so perfectly nat- 
ural, so simple, unaffected, and unpretending, 
that he appeared before his cultivated 
hearers with never a thought of himself or 
what personal impression he would make. 
His only thought was : assembled here are 
the wealth, culture, and religion of the 
nation ; woe is me if I plead not the cause 
of the poor and needy children of the 

(105) 



106 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

west! His own zeal and love were so 
great that what he said awakened like sen- 
timents in the 'hearts of his auditors, and 
he carried them with him in breathless in- 
terest. 

Year after year, he was called upon to 
return and spend his winters in the eastern 
cities, employed in lecturing upon his work, 
in order to engage benevolent people there 
in the task of supplying destitute regions 
in western fields with necessary funds for 
their evangelization. Into this work he 
entered with untiring energy and an all- 
absorbing devotion. He had endured the 
experiences he narrated ; he had had a part 
in the destitution he was called on to de- 
scribe; he had felt all the pathos and the 
pain, all the joy and gratitude of those who 
are uplifted by timely help from lives of 
worldliness to lives of consecration. It 
was no wonder then that this plain western 
missionary was startling in his facts, all- 
persuasive in his arguments, touching in 
his eloquence. Although he spoke every 
night in the week save Saturday, and from 
three to five times on Sunday, in all the 



ROSES AND THORNS. 107 

principal evangelical churches in the vari- 
ous towns and cities of the eastern, and 
some of the middle states, not one of all 
these spirited, earnest speeches has been 
preserved. They came unpremeditated 
from his heart, wrought an effective work 
for the Master, and died away into silence, 
or were treasured only in the hearts of his 
hearers. 

"Christ wrote nothing," he would reply, 
in answer to requests to write down his ad- 
dresses; "how can I write them, when I 
do not know until I see and feel my audi- 
ence what I shall say? I speak as the 
spirit within giveth me utterance." 

The press was unanimous in its commen- 
dations of the speeches of "The Great 
Western Missionary." A Boston daily 
noticed a meeting in that city as follows : 
" The audience was large in spite of a vio- 
lent storm, and the meeting was of the most 
interesting character. Mr. Paxson riveted 
the attention of every one present. The 
facts he gave in connection with his labors 
in organizing Sunday-schools in the west 
were of the most thrilling character, and 



108 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

showed the amazing work which he has been 
enabled to accomplish as a servant of the 
American Sunday-School Union. 

, "At the close of the address a handsome 
collection was taken up to aid Mr. Paxson's 
missionary work in the west. Many per- 
sons remained to shake hands with one who 
had organized more than a thousand Sabbath - 
schools, and an earnest desire was expressed 
to have him speak again in Boston. This 
he will probably do, as he speaks every night 
in the week save Saturday." 

The New York papers commented upon 
his efforts as follows : 

"Last evening a meeting was held in Dr. 
Spring's church, corner of 37th Street and 
Fifth Avenue, in behalf of the American Sun- 
day-School Union. 

"The indefatigable missionary, Stephen 
Paxson, made an address in which his aris- 
tocratic auditors were so deeply interested 
that they wept and smiled alternately, never 
heeding mistakes in grammar, or rhetorical 
discrepancies. They were assured that 
Mr. Paxson was just the man for the work. 
He has a good head, well poised, over a 



BOSES AND THORNS. 109 

heart filled with love for his noble task. 
He has accomplished a work that the most 
popular dignitary in the church might be 
proud to acknowledge. The contributions 
for this occasion were five thousand dollars." 

At Brooklyn, in January, 1859, he was 
warmly received. One of his meetings is 
thus described by a New York correspond- 
ent: 

"The large and elegant church of Rev. 
Mr. Budington was opened for this mis- 
sionary gathering. The night was cold, but 
the audience large. Mr. Chidlaw made a 
good speech, but the chief speech of the 
evening was by Mr. Paxson, one of the 
society's missionaries in the west. It was 
a model speech ; short, pointed, racy, effec- 
tive. We need more such. They hit the 
nail on the head. He showed how the 
work was done out west. How, in an al- 
most hopeless settlement, a few papers, 
books and personal efforts gather in the 
children ; how the parents follow ; then the 
prayer-meeting; then the preacher. At 
times the audience was convulsed with 
laughter, and then the eye was dimmed 



110 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

with tears. Every story was told with in- 
imitable effect." 

A paper in Bangor, Maine, said*of him : 
^ " Mr. Paxson is an uneducated man, but 
his unaffected simplicity, his ready wit, his 
skill in telling a story, his quaint expres- 
sions, his evident sincerity and earnestness, 
give him great power over an audience. 
His extensive travels, his indefatigable in- 
dustry, his peculiar work, and his peculiar 
talents for it, have brought him into contact 
with vast numbers in the new states of the 
west, and have given him great influence 
there. It has been said by those who know, 
that he has exerted more political power in 
saving those great states than scores of 
politicians. His address was lengthy, but 
it was a common observation of the people, 
as they left the house, that they could have 
listened much longer. We will only say to 
our friends who want to secure an effective 
speaker for Sabbath-school occasions — one 
who shall at once entertain his young audi- 
tors and leave a good impression on their 
minds, that they can not do better than to 
secure the services of Mr. Paxson." 



EOSES AND THOBNS. m 

A Philadelphia paper adds the following: 

" Probably very few persons interested in 
Sabbath-schools have failed to hear the 
pioneer missionary of the west. He has 
been laboring in connection with the Amer- 
ican Sunday-School Union for some twenty 
years, and has done a work which few men 
are able to do in a lifetime, having himself 
organized over eleven hundred Sunday- 
schools. He has been speaking in this and 
other cities for several weeks to large and 
deeply interested audiences. The facts con- 
nected with his work produce the greatest 
astonishment on the minds of those not fami- 
liar with the west. His addresses are con- 
vincing and instructive." 

In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and other 
states he was equally welcomed. A Hart- 
ford journal said : 

" It was our good fortune to hear 
' Father ' Paxson's address, and we can 
assure our readers that none who have 
once listened to his earnest words and 
touching narratives, will ever be willing to 
miss a second opportunity of hearing him. 
He has true western eloquence, simplicity, 



112 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

and fervor, and all who love the Sunday- 
school work will find their love of it quick- 
ened and intensified by his words. Few 
men have been privileged to do so much 
toward the moral elevation of the human 
race." 

After these cheering winters in New Eng- 
land, when the money so much needed in 
destitute places had been lavishly poured 
out to enrich the fields he tilled — when he 
had been welcomed and hospitably enter- 
tained by the best men in the most luxuri- 
ous of homes — when the Sunday-school 
children of the Quaker City had publicly 
testified to their appreciation of his labors 
by presenting the lame missionary with a 
cane cut from the Mount of Olives — Mr. 
Paxson went back to his lowly life-work in 
obscure places, content and joyful. For a 
time he had " lain in the lilies and fed on the 
roses of life,"— now, he went from the 
' prophet's chamber ' in the home of George 
H. Stuart, to the log cabins in the west, 
glad to accept the situation and finding noth- 
ing unendurable in it. 

The following little incident occurred in 



ROSES AND THORNS. H3 

one of these log cabins soon after a return 
from the east. He was six feet tall; the 
cot given him to sleep upon was short. He 
had become accustomed to better accom- 
modations, so he forgot the limitations of 
his cot, and as he fell asleep extended him- 
self his full length. His feet, covered by a 
white sheet, went right through an open 
space between the logs in the wall of the 
house where the mud filling had dropped 
out. He was awakened very early in the 
morning by the fierce barking of a dog and 
the cry of a boy : " Mr. Missionary ! Mr. 
Missionary ! wake up and take in your feet 
or Jowler will bite your toes off." 

Mr. Paxson found that he could not 
organize schools fast enough to satisfy him 
by his own unaided labor; so, when his 
eldest son was fifteen, he took him for an 
assistant. 

They would visit the towns, especially on 
Saturdays, as then there would be many 
farmers in; and going about among the 
wagons and teams, would make inquiries 
about the different schools in the various 
neighborhoods where the farmers lived, 

8 



114 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

thus securing much desirable information in 
a little time, besides saving miles of travel. 

Once they were passing through a settle- 
ment to reach a place they had heard of in 
this way, when they came upon an old field 
school-house with the chimney leaning one 
way and the house another. The chinking, 
and daubing had all dropped out from be- 
tween the logs. It was determined that a 
school must be organized here; and so 
they hunted up the only man who had ever 
been a christian and told him they pro- 
posed to have a Sunday-school meeting. 
He said it was impossible to have a school, 
for the people must have Sunday for fishing 
and hunting. He did not go himself, but 
every one else did. The missionary in- 
sisted on trying to start a school, and asked 
him to be superintendent. He said : " Well, 
in the first place you won't start the school. 
Then, in the second place, if you do, they 
won't have me for superintendent." 

He sent his son around on old " Bob " to 
every house in the neighborhood to tell the 
people to come out that night to a Sunday- 
school meeting at the school-house. 



ROSES AND THORNS. H5 

They came. The boys brought their 
guns, horns, and hounds: They stacked 
their guns in one corner. While the 
speaker was addressing them, the dogs out- 
side got into a fight. As soon as a dog 
was whipped, he would run into the house, 
as the door was off its hinges. Two men 
put the door cross-wise, and held it to keep 
the dogs out, while the Sunday-school was 
being organized. After the meeting the 
boys began to blow their horns, and the 
dogs began to howl, and all was confusion. 

But the school was organized, five dollars 
being collected for books, and ten dollars 
donated^ while the discouraged brother was 
promptly made superintendent. As our 
missionaries went their way, the lad asked 
his father if this was what was meant by 
sowing the seed beside all waters. 

Two years later, in passing near this 
place, a man told them the subsequent his- 
tory of this school. He said : "After you 
left, the people decided it was a Yankee 
trick to get our money and that the books 
would never come. But, by and by, to 
their surprise they did come ! The people 



116 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

got together to get the books on Sunday, 
and they went to reading the Bible. After 
a while they concluded they were living too 
much like heathen people, so they sent off 
and got a preacher to come and preach. 
All the teachers and about two-thirds of the 
scholars joined the meeting." 

Two more years passed by, and again 
the missionary found himself in the neigh- 
borhood of the old field school-house. He 
found the spot occupied by one of the finest 
country churches in Northern Missouri, and 
that one hundred persons constituted its 
membership. 

The most frequent obstacle in his way 
was the extreme poverty of the people, but 
he had a happy faculty of securing all they 
were able to give. They would inform him 
that they would be glad of a library, but 
had no money, and perhaps would have 
none until their crops were harvested. 

" But how much would you give toward 
buying a library supposing you had the 
money?" the missionary would inquire. 
The reply to this would vary, as to the 
amount, from five to fifteen dollars. 



ROSES AND THORNS. 117 

In almost every district he would find one 
man at least a little better off than his neigh- 
bors. So he would say, " Now, is there not 
some gentleman present who is willing to 
advance the sum these people are willing to 
give for a library, and allow them to pay 
him at their earliest convenience?" 

In such appeals he never failed, and would 
often go away with the only five or ten dol- 
lars the neighborhood contained. 

The following incident pictures the social 
condition of part of his field, while illustrat- 
ing his indomitable perseverance. 

" I once went to a wild, desolate region 
on Panther Creek. I learned that there 
had never been any kind of a school estab- 
lished there, and that there was but one 
christian family in the settlement. I called 
on this man — a Mr. Piper — and he promised 
to act as superintendent in the school I pro- 
posed to organize, provided the people would 
elect him. There was no school-house, 
so by his permission I visited all the peo- 
ple and invited them to meet me at his 
house. 

"The night of the meeting arrived, but 



118 A EBUITFUL LIFE. 

no one came. I could see the people in 
wagons, on horseback, and afoot, passing 
on their way up the creek. I asked my 
host where they were going. He went out 
and inquired of some one, and found they 
were on their way to a dance, or, as it was 
rudely designated by them, a ' hoe-down.' 
After the time appointed for my meeting 
had passed, I asked my friend to accompany 
me to the dance. He hesitated, and could 
not understand why a missionary should go 
to such a place. I explained that I had a 
message to give to the people of that settle- 
ment, and if they would not come to me, I 
must go to them. 

" We went to the house, and found that 
the fiddling and dancing had begun. I called 
for the lady of the house, and inquired if she 
was willing to ask the fiddler to stop for a 
few moments, for, although a stranger, I had 
some good news to tell them. 

" The dancing ceased ; all wanted to know 
what the news was and how long it would 
take to tell it. One man asked if it was 
news from Pike's Peak, for he had a brother 
who had gone there to dig gold, and he 



ROSES AND THORNS. 119 

would like to hear from there. I told him 
my news was not from Pike's Peak, but 
from the peaks of Mount Sinai, a great deal 
farther off than Pike's Peak, but better news 
than he would ever get from Pike's Peak, 
though his brother should secure all the 
golden treasures it contained; and that it 
would take me about thirty minutes to tell 
them my news. Some wanted to hear what 
I had to say, and others wanted to go on 
with the dance. 

" Seeing there was a division among them, 
I put it to vote, and a majority voted in 
favor of hearing the stranger. I talked to 
them for thirty minutes, then stopped, tell- 
ing them I was not quite through, but my 
time was up. All cried out, * Go on ! ' ' We'll 
hear all you have got to say.' I went on, 
and 'ended by proposing to start a Sunday- 
school. 

" Some said they rather guessed they 
ought to do it, for they had never had any 
good thing on Panther Creek. We proceeded 
to elect officers. I then told them that they 
would need a library, which would cost about 
fifteen dollars, as there were some seventy 



120 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

children to attend the school. They re- 
sponded that if money was needed, there 
was no use of beginning, for there was no 
money on Panther Creek. 

" ' But,' I replied, ' I have been informed 
that you keep up a dance here one night in 
every week. If you have no money, how do 
you pay the fiddler ? ' 

" ' Oh, we cut wood for him ! ' was the re- 
ply. ' We cut wood for him in the daytime, 
and he fiddles for us at night." 

" I then informed them that a young gen- 
tleman in New York state had, only a few 
weeks before, given me twenty -five dollars; 
that of this money, which was given on pur- 
pose to help needy Sunday-schools, I had 
fifteen dollars left. If they would agree to 
stop dancing, and keep up a Sunday-school, 
I would buy a library for them with that 
money. All consented except one young 
woman, who said she would rather dance 
than read, but that if the rest quit, she sup- 
posed she would have to do so too. Three 
years afterward they employed a minister, 
who said he never had a more attentive 
audience." 



ROSES AND THORNS. 121 

It was a curious fact in regard to the 
money which enabled the missionary to 
establish this school, that it was given by a 
young gentleman in Albany, who had de- 
signed to purchase a ball ticket with it; but, 
hearing of the destitution in many parts of 
the west, as regarded all religious influences, 
he concluded it would be wrong to spend the 
money in that way, and that instead, he 
would make it a contribution for the support 
of some needy Sunday-school. Thus, the 
money saved from the ball-room in Albany 
broke up the dances on Panther Creek. 

As the traveler passes down the Missis- 
sippi River, he may see upon one of its 
highest bluffs two stately churches, one 
Methodist, the other Presbyterian, which are 
the outgrowth of this Panther Creek Sunday- 
school. 

Mr. Paxson was in the habit of saying 
that the word " impossible " was not in his 
dictionary. "I can't" was another phrase 
against which he waged a relentless war- 
fare. No matter how forbidding the state 
of circumstances, he pushed ahead witli as 
much zeal as though everything favored his 



122 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

efforts. He came to Roanoke to organize a 
school, but there was neither church edifice 
nor school-house in the little village. He 
soon discovered a tobacco barn, and into this 
he collected the people and organized them 
into a Sunday-school. Afterward when a 
school-house was built, the Sunday-school 
was moved into it, and still later, when a 
church was erected, it was transferred to 
that. Ever since its rude origin in a tobacco 
barn, now more than thirty years ago, that 
school has continued in summer and in 
winter, in peace and in war. 

Upon one occasion he knocked at the 
door of a school-house in the backwoods, 
where, by the hum of voices, he knew the 
school was in session. There was a rush 
as of hurrying feet and then all was still. 
In obedience to a faint " Come in," he en- 
tered the room and saw the abashed 
teacher standing in the middle of the floor, 
spelling-book in hand, but not a scholar 
was at first sight visible. Glancing about 
the room, as he greeted the teacher, he saw 
that the pupils had sought concealment 
under the benches. 



ROSES AND THORNS. 123 

With some difficulty, by producing pic- 
ture papers, he coaxed them out; and, 
after having gained their confidence a little 
and banished their fears of a stranger, he 
taught them a little lesson on the subject 
of manners. He found the poor children 
had never been to school before. He re- 
quested them all, when they went home in 
the afternoon, to tell their parents to come 
to the school-house that night, as he had 
something of the greatest importance to tell 
them. As the children were all interested, 
they did not fail to come back and to bring 
their parents along to hear what the stranger 
had to say. A school was organized at once 
in Hazel Switch Dell. 

He also organized a school at Briar 
Branch, where the majority of the people 
were very needy, but he collected what 
little money they had. He was told that a 
wealthy widow lady, who lived some two 
miles away, had sent word that she was 
heartily in sympathy with the movement, 
and would be glad to contribute towards 
the support of the school, if the missionary 
would call at her house. Charmed with the 



124 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

thought that now the school could have a 
map of Palestine and a Bible Dictionary, at 
least, he hastened over fields of waving 
corn and grass to her home. He was 
ushered into a fine parlor where the soft- 
cushioned chairs, velvety carpets, and beau- 
tiful pictures were a delight to his eyes, weary 
with the sight of rude, bare floors and walls. 

The lady presently entered and expressed 
her gratitude to him for his interest in the 
spiritual welfare of the poor people about 
her, and said if he would excuse her a mo- 
ment she would get the sum of money she 
had decided to contribute to so worthy a 
cause. She manifested such a generous in- 
terest that he mentally decided to think no 
longer of a five dollar library, for the school 
could have a fit teen dollar one just as well 
as not, and that was the very one needed. 
The lady returned and dashed his lofty 
expectations by handing him ten cents. 

But this incident was unusual and not 
generally characteristic of the west. 

Old and established schools were always 
ready to help young pioneer schools in des- 
titute regions. 



ROSES AND THORNS. 125 

Very pleasant examples of this were con- 
stantly occurring in Mr. Paxson's experi- 
ence. The Cold Water school, organized 
out in the open prairies of Illinois in 1854, 
was helped into existence by a timely dona- 
tion of books from the American Sunday- 
School Union. It soon became a thrifty, 
self-supporting school, and sent its spiritual 
father a handsome sum to help in the es- 
tablishment of other schools. 

In 1849 he organized a school in a com- 
munity where only two religious persons 
could be found to take charge of it; but, 
years afterward, he found that it had grown 
and prospered, and had organized an evan- 
gelical church. 

Many of his schools formed missionary 
societies, and made quarterly contributions 
to aid him in establishing new schools. 

Over all his thousands of teachers he ex- 
erted a wonderfully inspiring influence. He 
made them feel that it was a great thing to 
be good, that it was of the utmost impor- 
tance that they should improve themselves 
in every possible way. He would often re- 
mark : " My Heavenly Father has not sent 



126 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

me to tell many things to a few people, but 
he has sent me to tell a few things to many 
people." These few things were neither new 
nor strange, but old truths vitalized by his 
own earnest belief in them. 

He would encourage his teachers in such 
simple wprds, but with such soul-felt man- 
ner that they would be aroused and stimu- 
lated by his most unpretending remarks. 
He would often address them somewhat in 
this way : 

"My clear friends in Christ, I am speak- 
ing now to you who have this immensely 
great charge of directing the young mind 
and heart. If there is any one class of God's 
people that I love better than another, it 
is you. 

" The christian sister or brother, who is 
taking the child from the paths of vice and 
folly, and placing its feet in the paths of 
piety, I look upon as occupying the highest 
position in the world that any mortal, save 
the minister of Christ, can occupy. You 
are doing a work in which angels would 
delight to engage ; you are starting little 
rills of influence, which will flow on to 



I 



ROSES AND THORNS. 127 

eternity, depositing blessings all along the 
way. 

" If we write upon marble, it will perish ; 
if we write upon brass, time will efface it; 
if we rear temples, they will crumble into 
dust ; but if we write God's holy truth upon 
young immortal minds, it will live and 
brighten forever. I will state my convic- 
tion that while America is to decide the 
destiny of the world, the Mississippi Valley 
is to decide the destiny of America; and 
the Sunday-school is to decide the destiny 
of the Mississippi Valley, and the Church 
is to decide the destiny of the Sunday- 
school. And I do think the Sabbath-school 
is heaven's last experiment to aid God's 
ministers in bringing the world to Christ. 
Engaged in this work, your names may not 
be heralded by the captains of earthly hosts ; 
they may never be sounded by the silver 
trumpet of fame ; but in the courts of glory 
they will be written in letters of light, 
which will burn on in a blaze of glory, 
when this world and all its glitter of vanity 
shall have passed away. Your work is for 
eternity, and here you can never tell how 



128 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

much good you accomplish, because you can 
never measure the amount of evil which 
you have prevented. But one day, in the 
glad hereafter, you shall know; when the 
question is asked : 

" ' Who are these whose little feet, 

Pacing life's dark journey through, 
Now have reached that heavenly seat 
They had ever kept in view ? ' 

"And the answer comes — 

"'I, from Greenland's frozen land; 
I, from India's sultry plain; 
I, from Afric's barren sand ; 
I, from islands of the main. 

'"All our earthly journey past, 
Every tear and pain gone by, 
Here together met at last, 
At the portals of the sky ! 

" ' Each the welcome " Come " awaits, 
Conquerors over death and sin ; 
Lift your heads, ye golden gates, 
Let the little travelers in ! ' " 

Our missionary had no doubt as to the 
future greatness of the west. He felt as- 
sured that a dense population would one 
day cover these mighty prairies; that the 
descendants of these untaught people whom 
he was trying to educate and uplift, would 



ROSES AND THORNS. 129 

be the heroes and sages of the time to come. 
He felt himself a kind of John the Baptist in 
the wilderness, feeding upon locusts and wild 
honey, but preparing the way, in some rude, 
pioneer fashion, for the coming footsteps of 
the Prince of Light. 

The world trusts the man who gives pos- 
itive replies and is sure of his own purpose. 
So the masses trusted Stephen Paxson ; and 
by " carrying knowledge to the people who 
sat in darkness," he transformed dangerous 
elements into elements of strength and safety. 
He was willing and glad to use his indomit- 
able energy and the full measure of his mag- 
netic influence in the work of uplifting the 
lowest and most ignorant. At the risk of 
his life, having been warned with threaten- 
ings again and again not to attempt the task, 
he broke up the Sunday horse- racing at 
Loafer Grove, organized the rowdies into a 
Bible school, and kept them there, after he 
was gone, by the force of a strong, personal 
influence, until they were moved upon by a 
higher power. 

One secret of his abiding influence over 
others lay in the fact that he felt in his own 



130 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

heart all the awe of such a gift. Solemn as 
" eternity's stillness " was the thought ever 
present : 

" Choose well ! your choice is 
Brief, and yet endless." 

Though working in a sphere the world 
considers comparatively humble, yet this 
man of God was not left without the temp- 
tations of mammon. A gentleman at the 
east, who knew of his perfect familiarity 
with western lands, and who had the utmost 
confidence in his unswerving integrity, offered 
to take him into partnership for the purchase 
of some of these lands. He was offered 
$50,000 to invest, the two to share equally 
in the profits. The offer was resolutely de- 
clined. Pie could not think of giving a 
divided interest to his great work. 

Years afterward, Mr. Paxson and his busi- 
ness friend compared notes. His friend had 
doubled the $50,000. Mr. Paxson drew his 
memorandum-book and pointed to the record 
— fifty thousand scholars gathered into Sun- 
day-school up to that time — adding, "I 
would not alter the record or change the in- 
vestment." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MASS MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. 

Meanwhile the war-cloud had begun to 
darken and overshadow the land. All hearts 
grew anxious. Mr. Paxson rejoiced over the 
fact that the Union army was depopulat- 
ing his Sunday-schools. He felt that his 
teachers and scholars were not only pre- 
pared to fight bravely, but to die nobly, if 
need be, in their country's cause. In one 
township, out of one hundred and eighty- 
one voters, he found that one hundred and 
twenty-eight had gone to the war. One of 
his Sunday-schools on McGee's Creek had 
sent to the war every one of its male pupils 
over twelve years of age. 

Through the quiet street of Summer Hill, 
one warm night, sounded the cry, " The 
bush-whackers are coming down upon Louis- 
iana ! " a town in Missouri, some ten miles 
away. 

The men and boys of the village speedily 

(131) 



132 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

armed themselves, as best they could, and 
departed to the defence of the town, leaving 
women and children to watch the long night 
through, beset by fears as to what might 
happen to their loved ones. Nothing of 
consequence happened to the disturbed town, 
but the young men had all their patriotic 
feelings aroused, and soon many of them 
bade farewell to their pleasant homes and 
went away to the war, some of them never 
to return. 

Upon one occasion in these exciting 
times, Mr. Paxson was holding a Sunday- 
school meeting in the state of Missouri, 
when his audience became intensely ex- 
cited by the approach of twenty-five armed 
"bush-whackers." That an evil fate was 
nearing them, all surmised, and each was 
anxious and alarmed. Mr. Paxson kept 
perfectly cool. He told his little congrega- 
tion to remain quietly seated, while he be- 
gan singing one of his favorite hymns. 
The bush-whackers gathered about the 
door and listened a few moments, then 
quietly walked in and seated themselves 
upon the benches nearest the door. He 



MASS MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. 133 

felt that there was more power in song 
than in words; and as his new audience 
seemed very attentive, he sang song after 
song until weary. He then ceased, and the 
bush-whackers went quietly away, while the 
people drew long breaths of relief. 

Again it became necessary to change his 
place of residence, in order that his sons 
might be educated at college without the 
expense of sending them from home. 
Jacksonville, Illinois, was near the centre of 
his field of labor, and thither the family 
removed in the year 1861. This city of 
schools and public institutions welcomed 
the arrival of the veteran missionary, in the 
persons of many of its best citizens, who 
had become well acquainted with him and 
his work. 

He opened a depository of the books of 
the Society for greater convenience in filling 
orders, and amid all the tumult of the times, 
continued his peaceful efforts in behalf of 
the children of the land. 

"Robert Raikes" had now become old 
and infirm. It was a serious question how 
much more travel the faithful creature could 



134 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

endure. Frequently his master was com- 
pelled to take compassion on him and travel 
on the cars, in order that he might rest. 
The family all thought that his last days 
should be restful ones, and hoped that some- 
thing would happen to relieve him. Mr. 
Paxson's friends always liked to travel with 
him, because, they said, he could not go six 
miles without meeting with some adventure, 
or, at the very least, an "incident" would 
occur at the first corner, or a "fact" be found 
waiting for him at the sign-post; so it was 
thought quite reasonable to suppose that 
something would certainly happen to relieve 
poor "Old Bob," and comfort the heart of 
his compassionate master. 

Sure enough, one day a letter came all the 
way from New York, which said, as nearly 
as can be recalled: 

Dear Brother Fazson : — This morning I found that the Lord 
had put one hundred dollars in my pocket-book, which I feel 
directed to send to you for the purchase of a " Robert Raikes, 
Junior." Your old friend, 

Ralph Wells. 

The eyes of the missionary were dewy 
with tears, as he folded the letter, saying : 



MASS MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. 135 

" I' am not worthy of this, though my faith 
is strong that I shall never see the righteous 
forsaken nor his seed begging bread. But 
the work is worthy of those things which 
shall forward it; and this dear friend's gift 
shall be dedicated to carrying the gospel to 
those who sit in darkness." 

What a question was now to be decided ! 
for where could a horse be found worthy 
to succeed " Robert " and to bear his name ? 
Great caution was advised, extreme pru- 
dence insisted upon. So very anxious was 
every one that weeks passed by and many 
horses had been under review and still no 
choice had been made. At last, upon 
reaching home one evening, afte^ a fruitless 
quest for a worthy animal, Mr. Paxson was 
told by his wife that she had found a 
"Raikes, Junior." A man had brought a 
horse to the house that day for his inspec- 
tion, which she was sure, to all appearances, 
was just the horse desired. He was im- 
mediately secured and soon proved himself 
adequate to the work which lay before 
him. 

A pleasant feature of Mr. Paxson's work 



136 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

was the letters he received, especially those 
from children. A young girl in Sangamon 
county wrote him a letter in 1864, telling 
him that she had so longed for a Sunday- 
school to attend, that she had started one 
herself. She took three children from her 
own family and two from a neighbor's, 
secured the help of a young friend about 
singing, and with these began a Sunday- 
school. The third Sunday the school num- 
bered thirty scholars, and often afterward 
one hundred. The school was in need of 
books, and she wrote to him for supplies. 

He gave the history of this " Antioch 
School " at a convention in Springfield, as 
an illustration of what one young, earnest 
soul could do in the work of the Master, 
and closed his remarks by saying, " and 
this young girl is with us to-night." Though 
years have passed away, his simple letter 
of warm encouragement is still preserved 
by her, and she treasures up his last words 
to her : " Live right, and we shall meet up 
yonder." 

Long after his first simple effort in Win- 
chester, it became evident that Sunday- 



MASS MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. 137 

school conventions had finally grown popu- 
lar, and that the power of organized effort 
was fully recognized. He had predicted the 
wonderful advance which would be made 
in this direction, and had given the strength 
of his influence in aid of the work. A writer 
in the New York Independent, in a descrip- 
tion of one of the Illinois State Sunday- 
school Conventions, says : 

" No religious gathering in the country 
excites more general attention. This year 
it met in a vast i Wigwam,' in the beauti- 
ful city of Bloomington. Three thousand 
enthusiastic delegates were present. In the 
afternoon the convention met in sections 
for close practical work. In the evening 
the theatre — pit and parquet, stage and 
gallery — was jammed. A thousand people 
outside petitioned for another meeting and a 
church was opened which immediately over- 
flowed. The next morning was given to 
exciting discussions under the strict applica- 
tion of the five minutes and later three 
minutes rule. It is astonishing how un- 
wontedly eloquent men become under this 
hydraulic pressure. 



138 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" Stephen Paxson, the old Illinois mis- 
sionary of the American Sunday-School 
Union, spoke in his well-known style. And 
the eloquence of Stephen Paxson makes 
one feel, after all, that education is rather a 
dispensable luxury than a necessity. The 
lady who was the teacher of the little 
daughter who led him into the Sunday- 
school was also present. Mr. Paxson and 
Prof. P. G. Gillett were appointed to cam- 
paign in the counties of 'Egypt.' The re- 
mainder of the executive committee divided 
the rest of the state among them. As here- 
tofore, when money was asked, more was 
tendered than was needed. The one thou- 
sand dollars asked for this year was raised 
in fifteen minutes, and the committee were 
obliged to refuse subscriptions. Up to the 
minute of adjournment the interest in- 
creased. Speeches followed in quick suc- 
cession, being mingled with the stirring 
songs of Philip Phillips. Mr. D. L. Moody, 
the President, made an eloquent closing ad- 
dress. But how imperfect my poor represen- 
tation of this, as I firmly believe, the most re- 
markable convention of the kind ever held." 



MASS MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. 139 

Another notice of the same meeting says : 
"Illinois has the best corps of voluntary 
workers, and is the best organized of any 
state we know. Three thousand delegates, 
besides many people, were present in a large 
' wigwam,' built for the purpose. Father 
Paxson was the lion of the last day, and 
made one of his thrilling and characteristic 
speeches. Thousands of scholars were there 
and his reception was grand indeed." 

For such a furor of Sunday-school inter- 
est even Mr. Paxson was scarcely prepared, 
although he had worked to this end through 
weary years, when indifference was the pre- 
vailing hindrance to all successful effort. 

At the first International Sunday-school 
Convention, held at Indianapolis in 1872, 
the chairman, Prof. P. G. Gillett, said — refer- 
ring to the maps of Illinois and Missouri, 
which were shaded so that the lighter parts 
represented the greater number of churches 
and Sunday-schools. " You will find a broad 
belt of light through Central Illinois and 
Northern Missouri, caused by the labors for 
forty years of the pioneer Sunday-school 
missionary." 



140 ^ FRUITFUL LIFE. 

"Open the windows and let in the light," 
were the last words of a great writer — the 
dying Goethe ; but, " Open the windows and 
let in the light" of truth and knowledge was 
the life motto of these humble disciples. 

Mr. Paxson was so catholic in his senti- 
ments that these Sunday-school conventions 
were peculiarly pleasing to him. He was 
accustomed to remark : " I love to meet in 
this way, if for no other reason than that it 
rubs off the rough edges of sectarian preju- 
dice, as here we all meet upon the broad 
platform of God's truth. Here we know no 
differences. We ask not to what church you 
belong, but, are you laboring in this grand 
work? I think God is thus uniting the 
Protestant churches of this country for the 
great battle just before us." 

At a convention in Gait, Upper Canada, 
Mr. Paxson was the guest of the mayor of 
the city, who had become as much inter- 
ested in his Sunday-school experiences, as 
Mr. Paxson was in the country and people 
about him. At one of the meetings he nar- 
rated a little story which greatly amused his 
audience. He was trying to show that it 



MASS MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. 141 

is not best for teachers to preach to their 
scholars, but simply to teach them. 

A lady had told him an anecdote of her 
experience, which bore upon this point. 
Said she : " For many years I prepared my 
lesson to preach to the scholars. A little 
incident occurred one day that upset all my 
ideas about preparation. I was preaching 
to my scholars, and they were listening, as 
I thought, with great attention. One little 
girl particularly appeared to be listening 
and drinking in everything I said ; when, to 
my surprise, she inquired, 'Missis, do you 
know if a person would pare their nails on 
Friday, the witches would not catch her?'" 

" The child had not been hearing a word 
she said. Then she began to reflect, and 
changed her plan accordingly. Now, my 
friends," continued Mr. Paxson, "I will read 
directions for preparations from one of the 
best writers ever heard of in the United 
States," and he proceeded to read passages 
from one of the apostles. 

Upon another occasion he was attending 
a* convention, and the subject under discus- 
sion was : " What are the necessary qualifi- 



142 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

cations of a Sunday-school teacher ? " The 
different speakers wrangled over it a good 
deal, and much feeling was aroused when 
Mr. Paxson arose and said : " My dear 
friends, I wish to read a few lines from a 
very old book, bearing upon the question 
under consideration : 

" ' Study to show thyself approved unto 
God, a workman that needeth not to be 
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 
But shun profane and vain babblings; for 
they will increase unto more ungodliness. 
* * * Foolish and unlearned questions 
avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. 
And the servant of the Lord must not strive ; 
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, 
patient, in meekness instructing those that 
oppose themselves. * * * Hold fast the 
form of sound words, which thou hast heard 
of me, in faith and love which is in Christ 
Jesus. * * * Wherefore I put thee in 
remembrance that thou stir up the gift of 
God, which is in thee by the putting on of 
my hands. * * * These things command 
and teach. Let no man despise thy youth*; 
but be thou an example of believers, in 



MASS MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS. 143 

word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, 
in faith, in purity. Till I come give attend- 
ance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 
Neglect not the gift that is in thee. * * * 
Meditate upon these things; give thyself 
wholly to them ; * * * for in doing 
this thou shalt both save thyself and them 
that hear thee. * * * Timothy, keep that 
which is committed to thy trust, avoiding 
profane and vain babblings, and opposition 
of science, falsely so called.' " * 

When he had finished the passage he sat 
down without a word. A deep silence fell 
upon the audience. All seemed to feel that 
nothing more could be said. Finally, a 
member arose and said : 

" Mr. President, that subject having now 
been completely exhausted, I move that we 
proceed to consider the next topic." 

The motion was carried unanimously. 
All incipient speeches were thus hushed, 
and perfect harmony restored. 

*See Epistles to Timothy. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A NEW WORK. 

The condition of the people of this sec- 
tion of the country was now much im- 
proved by the civilizing influence of rail- 
roads, and by the spiritual and mental 
development consequent upon the estab- 
lishment of day-schools and Sunday-schools, 
so that Mr. Paxson now rarely met with 
the rude experiences of an earlier period. 
He no longer dreaded a similar adventure 
to that of being lost on " Grand Prairie" 
with fire behind, and before, and around 
him. He was not again compelled to take 
his saddle to bed with him for the double 
purpose of making it serve as a pillow for 
his head, and of preventing the rats from 
gnawing it during the night. Better ar- 
rangements were made for him than those 
of yore, when he organized schools in to- 
bacco barns, or in a school-house surrounded 
by a swollen creek and which he could not 

(144) 



A NEW WORK. 145 

reach without bridging the stream, or in a 
deserted car by the railroad track. " Rob- 
ert Raikes, Junior," was never turned loose, 
as his predecessor had been, to find his sup- 
per in the woods or on the prairie. No 
longer did children run under the bed or 
behind the door upon seeing a stranger ap- 
proach the house. He was not again warned 
that an attempt to organize schools in cer- 
tain places would be at the risk of being 
disabled or perhaps of losing his life. He 
was never again suspected of being a horse- 
thief, trying to spy out the land under cover 
of religious meetings ; or a Yankee swindler 
endeavoring to cheat people out of their 
money under pretense of buying books for 
them. 

Old things had passed away, and all 
things had become new. He had tried to 
the extent of his ability to obey the com- 
mand : " Gather the people together, men, 
and women, and children, and thy stranger 
that is within thy gates, that they may hear, 
and that they may learn, and fear the Lord 
your God, and observe to do all the words 
of this law : And that their children, which 
10 



146 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

have not known anything, may hear, and 
learn to fear the Lord }'our God, as long 
as ye live in the land whither ye go over 
Jordan to possess it."* 

And his reward was that, instead of meet- 
ing boys who could not tell who made them, 
or who died to save sinners, he would hear 
of this and that Sunday-school boy having 
become earnest preachers of the word ; or 
of this bright youth of an earlier time, now 
the honored governor of a state ; or of an- 
other, eminent in the service of his country ; 
while among the little girls he had gathered 
into the fold of the Master, he would after- 
ward bid farewell and God-speed to one de- 
parting to her life-work in Persia, and hear 
of another in far-away India. 

He had exemplified in his life the fact 
that " we live in deeds, not years;" and so, 
though he had a merry heart to " cheat the 
toil and cheer the way," he was now grown 
weary, worn by the incessant toil and travel 
of thirty years. The Society kindly gave 
him the easier position of taking charge of 
the Book Depository in St. Louis, with lib- 

* Deut. xxxi. 12, 13. 



A NEW WORK. 147 

erty to travel whenever he felt disposed, to 
missionary Sunday-school conventions, mass- 
meetings, and in similar work. 

He moved to St. Louis in the year 1868. 
To business life he brought the same energy 
and enthusiasm which had characterized 
him in his Sunday-school work. Accus- 
tomed to do his whole duty and never to do 
anything by halves, he insisted that the 
work of each day should be done in that 
day. His clerks soon learned that close at- 
tention to business was the way to win 
favor. An order left over from one day to 
another only partly filled, he called a 
" cripple." A stranger entering the store 
would perhaps be surprised to hear his em- 
phatic declaration to his clerks that he 
would have no "cripples " around Mm. His 
promptness and fine executive ability soon 
earned a reputation for the house, which was 
invaluable. 

Many of his old friends and acquaintances 
in the Sunday-school work, upon hearing of 
his connection with the Sunday-school book 
business, would write to him for supplies; 
and many a business letter was relieved of 



148 ^ FRUITFUL LIFE. 

its monotony by allusions to personal ac- 
quaintance and former work, as, for instance, 
the following : 

" The school for which these supplies are 
bought is an outgrowth of one you organized 
years ago in a little log school-house at 
' Green Pond.' We have now a fine church, 
which has grown out of that school. I was 
a little boy then, and you let me ride ' Rob- 
ert Eaikes ' around the neighborhood to call 
the people out at early candle-lighting to 
organize the school, and I am now the 
superintendent." 

Or something like this : 

" Do you remember when you organized a 
Sunday-school on ' Honey Creek,' and how I 
had to carry the books you sent, sixteen miles 
on my back on Saturday evening, in order 
to have them ready for Sunday ?" 

Again : 

" You cannot have forgotten Joy's Prairie 
Sunday-school. I am now the librarian, and 
order all the books. When you came to our 
house years ago I held the dog to keep him 
from biting you, while you persuaded father 
to let me join the school." 



A NEW WORK. 149 

Thus he lived over again from day to day 
in these letters — some of them too personal 
and precious to be made public — the old 
life and work. He opened all his numerous 
letters himself, and had a book in which to 
enter them ; for in all his work order was 
law. 

He soon made the acquaintance of all the 
children in the vicinity of the store, and 
would give them cards and papers and in- 
quire where they went to Sunday-school. 
He was soon compelled to limit their visits 
to Saturday afternoon, when the store would 
be thronged with children. 

Even here, in the heart of a large city, he 
was never without an amusing incident; for 
people from the backwoods now sought him 
out as he had once sought them. One day 
a man came to the bookstore, and said he 
would like to buy the "American Sunday- 
School Union." 

Mr. Paxson told him that he had no book 
of that name. 

"Well, sir," was the response, "make a 
book for me, then, that will explain the 
Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I do 



150 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

not want a big book; let it cost about fifteen 
cents. I work hard on my farm all the 
week, and I don't have time to read. I want 
a book that will tell me right off all I want 
to know about the Sunday-school lesson." 

"I do not," explained Mr. Paxson, "write 
or publish books myself; but here are a few 
volumes of 'Teacher's Helps,' written by 
men much wiser than I am, and they would 
prove invaluable to you, if you would study 
them carefully ; but, my dear sir, you must 
not expect to buy, with fifteen cents, brains 
enough to run your Sunday-school class with- 
out any trouble or study on your part." 

Mr. Paxson's labors gradually extended 
over various states in the southwest. His 
services were eagerly sought in all the state 
and county conventions. Previous to the 
first state convention in Texas, he spent sev- 
enty days in traveling over that vast state, 
organizing and holding local conventions and 
arousing the churches to aggressive work in 
behalf of the children. 

The press made various complimentary 
allusions to this work. One journal men- 
tioned it and its originator as follows : 



A NEW WORK. 151 

" Hoary-headed and venerable as he is, he 
has been striking herculean blows for the 
work, while he has labored with an enthusi- 
asm that would seem to indicate that he 
would, if it were possible, reap the whole 
state for the Lord." 

Again — 

" The leading spirits of the convention 
were the Paxsons, father and son. Perhaps 
no man has accomplished more good than 
Father Paxson. No man ever started 
lower. Cursed by orphanage, poverty, 
lameness, and an impediment in speech, he 
has toiled on and labored upward, until he 
has built for himself a monument of good 
works more enduring than brass or marble. 
He is an earnest, fluent speaker, throwing 
so much soul into his subject that the de- 
fects of early education are scarcely no- 
ticed." 

While absent upon this work Mr. Paxson 
wrote : 

" Texas, in many respects, is the most 
wonderful country on the face of the earth. 
Take New York, Pennsylvania, South Car- 
olina, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and put- 



152 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

ting them all together you have a state al- 
most as large as Texas. Here is the black, 
waxy land. Here corn, wheat, and cotton 
grow side by side, as nowhere else on this 
continent. Immigration is pouring a steady 
stream into the great bosom of Texas, and 
cities and towns are springing up as if by 
magic. At Dallas, which was the base of 
our operations, we struck the great Carni- 
val of Mardi Gras in full heat of prepara- 
tion. The city was on fire with excitement 
over this wonderful show, and the town 
filled with strangers. This state of affairs 
was anything but encouraging to Sunday- 
school mission work ; but we had mapped 
out Texas for our campaign, and must pro- 
ceed." 

He did proceed, undaunted as of old by 
any obstacle, and the convention was a suc- 
cess. He appeared with his genial smile 
and re-juvenated bearing, and seemed fired 
by a new zeal, as he talked about the de- 
velopment of this great idea, whose history 
he had watched so earnestly, and now he 
beheld " How great a matter a little fire 
kindleth." 



A NEW WORK. 153 

The Missouri and Illinois State Sunday- 
school conventions happened to meet on the 
same days, beginning May 26th, 1875; and 
as he could not attend both, he sent this dis- 
patch to the Illinois convention : 

Dear Friends : I cannot be present in body, but am with you 
in spirit. Please read the following passages from God's word : 

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, 
that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 

"For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the 
gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you 
always in my prayers. * * * For your obedience is come 
abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf; but 
yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple 
concerning evil." (Rom. i. 8, 9; xvi. 19.) 

Iowa also called him into her service, and 
spoke of him as the " Sunday-school Nestor 
of the north-west, if not of America." 
Eleven years after helping to organize the 
first state convention in Iowa, he returned 
to attend another, and spoke in warm terms 
of the progress made — "All were ready and 
willing to work. I thought I could hear the 
sharpening of many sickles for future work 
for Christ in the great harvest-fields. There 
were no ' stop-over tickets ' issued at this 
convention, no stopping for winter or sum- 
mer, no pushing out on side-tracks ; but on- 



154 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

ward and upward was the watchword. 
When I behold the progress made by this 
state in eleven years, I can only exclaim, 
* What hath God wrought?.'" 

The following is his own account of a 
mass-meeting of Sunday-school workers in 
northern Missouri : 

•' This was a grand centennial meeting to 
be held on the Fourth of July, and neither 
money nor time had been spared to make it 
a success ; so, on the night of July 3d, while 
the torch-light processions were moving, and 
sky-rockets were flying, and fire-crackers 
whizzing, and cannons booming all over St. 
Louis, I started for northern Missouri. 
Every town I passed for more than a hun- 
dred miles was lit up with bonfires, and, as 
the train swept by, the multitude made the 
welkin ring. About midnight it began to 
rain, and by the time we reached Macon, at 
seven o'clock in the morning, the earth was 
covered with water. Here Dr. Rubey and 
Bro. Hale met me at the depot with long 
faces, much discouraged. The rain was still 
pouring down. 

"'If we have got grit, now let us show it,' 



A NEW WORK. 155 

said I. ' Tell all that will follow us to 
come on ! ' 

"Out of many hundreds that were ready 
to come, only a. few, about forty, had cour- 
age enough to face the storm. We took the 
cars and started for Callao, the place of meet- 
ing, ten miles distant. By the time we got 
there the rain had slackened. The church 
was opened for us, and soon filled. At ten 
o'clock the clouds began to break away and 
the people to pour in by hundreds, so we 
moved to a grove that had been prepared for 
five thousand people. We sent a dispatch 
back to Macon, telling the waiting crowd to 
come on the next train ; all things were now 
ready. The wind had shaken the water off 
the trees; the sun soon kissed the damp 
from the benches. The people kept coming 
until we had, it was said, three thousand on 
the ground. They brought with them a 
centennial dinner, and more than twelve 
baskets full were left. 

" Fourteen speeches were made, and I 
was compelled to make just half of them ; 
but they had one good trait — they were all 
short. 



156 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" Many interesting incidents occurred here. 
I met people I had known a quarter of a 
century before. One man shook hands 
with me, saying, 'The first Sunday-school 
speech I ever heard was made by you 
twenty-six years ago, in Bloomington in 
this county.' 

"Another greeted me, saying : 

" ' You and your son stopped at my father's 
in Schuyler county, more than a quarter 
of a century ago, and started a Sunday- 
school that is still going on — never stopped 
from the time it was started. We have a 
large church which I attend, that has grown 
out of that school.' 

"These and many other incidents which 
occur to me daily, ought to encourage us all 
to press on in this noble work. 

" I went back to Macon — cars so full 
there was not standing room, and all sing- 
ing, ' Let the lower lights be burning,' and 
other Sunday-school songs. It was as happy 
a crowd as I ever saw. I arrived at home 
all right except my voice. I had left it at 
the mass meeting." 

lie says : " It was as happy a crowd as I 



A NEW WORK. 157 

ever saw " — but all the crowds he mingled 
with were happy ones, for he called out 
every bit of joyousness there was in the 
people. He had traveled from the Alle- 
ghanies to the Rocky Mountains, from the 
Lakes to the Gulf, on foot, on horseback, 
and in every possible mode of conveyance ; 
but, no matter how many discomforts were 
endured by him and his fellow-travelers, he 
was invariably good-humored aDd disposed 
to look on the bright side. 

It was interesting to see him enter a car 
full of people all demurely reading or per- 
fectly silent, as if afraid of some contami- 
nation if they touched or spoke to each 
other. Before he had been present a 
quarter of an hour, his keen eye had ob- 
served every face, and he had discovered 
this man whom he once met in Maine, 
shaken hands with that friend from Colo- 
rado, and bowed to a lady whom he once 
made superintendent of a Sunday-school 
because no man could be found to fill the 
office. He would introduce these various 
persons to each other, get them to take 
seats together, open his satchel and distrib- 



158 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

ute music-books among them, and among 
any strangers who would take them. He 
would remember having seen some men 
with musical instruments as he was passing 
through another car, and retiring a moment 
he would return with them. He would 
then decide upon some song all could sing, 
and the music and the singing would begin. 
Spectators, somewhat surprised at first at 
his proceedings, would gradually draw 
nearer and join in. As new people came 
in at the various stations, they would at first 
seat themselves demurely and look on 
wonderingly; then, catching the contagion 
of the good time the crowd were having, 
they would soon be at one with them. So 
plunging through the forest and sweeping 
over the plain, the noise of the singing and 
laughing — for he would sometimes tell a 
story between the songs — mingled with the 
rumble of the train and the shriek of the 
engine, and made the travelers feel the 
truth that. " all the world is kin." 

At a Sunday-school Jubilee held in San- 
gerfest Hall, St. Louis, June 20, 1872, " some 
twenty-five thousand children," the city 



A NEW WORK. 159 

papers stated, "flocked into the vast build- 
ing very much as if some Pied Piper of 
Hamelin were perched upon the platform 
piping the same old, mysterious, seductive 
tune that drew children together long ago. 

"So many 'caroling cherubs' in gay 
attire, the great decorated hall, the thou- 
sands of glad voices, and the grand music, 
made it no ordinary jubilee. 

"Various addresses were made, and then 
the President introduced Stephen Paxson 
as the oldest Sunday-school worker in the 
house. His appearance was the signal for 
three enthusiastic cheers from the audience, 
and when quiet was restored, in a few well- 
chosen words he told them of the great joy 
he felt at witnessing such a goodly sight." 

"A gentleman came to my office not long 
since and said, ' Mr. Paxson, I wish to ask 
you a question, and hope you will take no 
offence at it.' 

"'No offence at all, sir; ask whatever 
you please, and I will do as I please about 
answering it.' 

" ' Well, Mr. Paxson, some people in the 
east are a little suspicious of the report that 



160 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

you have actually organized thirteen hun- 
dred new Sunday-schools with some sixty 
thousand scholars, and they requested me 
to examine into the matter. Have you any 
proof of it that you will permit me to ex- 
amine ? ' 

" ' Yes, sir ; here are my books containing 
the name of each school, with its superin- 
tendent, post-office address, and number of 
scholars, set down upon the very day it was 
organized, for I never left such things over 
night. Examine them to your heart's con- 
tent; and you will find duplicates of these 
records sent from time to time as they were 
filled at Godfrey, 111., and also at the Sun- 
day-School Union rooms in Philadelphia.' 

" 'Ah, yes, sir ; I see there can be no mis- 
take in the matter; the records are com- 
plete, and I shall take pleasure in acquaint- 
ing my friends with the facts — Good-bye, 
sir.' " 

Father Paxson once performed the feat 
of organizing forty Sabbath-schools in forty 
consecutive days ; and those who had tested 
the work could well understand the strong 
figure with which he ended the recital — 



A NEW WORK. 161 

" But I had to work day and night like a 
horse." 

The summer of the Centennial he visited 
Philadelphia again, for the purpose of attend- 
ing the anniversary meeting of the American 
Sunday-School Union. Here he met many 
old friends and fellow-helpers in the truth ; 
among them Rev. Dr. Richard Newton, who 
presided; Rev. J. McCullagh, of Kentucky; 
Rev. T. Wright, of Michigan ; Rev. B. W. 
Chidlaw, of Ohio; Mr. F. G. Ensign, of 
Illinois; "Father Martin," Rev. Dr. D. 
March, and Sir Charles Reed, M. P., of 
England. It was a gathering of the dis- 
ciples of the Lord, and filled the Academy 
of Music to overflowing. On Monday even- 
ing they met in the old First Church, where 
Rev. Albert Barnes preached for so many 
years, and addresses were made by Sir 
Charles Reed, Dr. March, Rev. B. W. Chid- 
law, and himself. 

He visited the Great Exposition and was 
delighted with many of its attractions, but 
turned resolutely away from its charms to at- 
tend one convention of Sunday-school workers 
in Pennsylvania^ and another in Indiana. 



162 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

He thus describes a convention in Mis- 
souri : 

" During the hot season — or, in other 
words, my vacation for the Centennial sum- 
mer — I went to Caseyville, Missouri, to at- 
tend a convention. I landed at the station 
with some forty or fifty delegates, and, as 
no one met us there, we marched double 
file through the town up to the church. It 
was not open. I was about to organize 
the convention outside, when the key was 
found and the door opened. The house was 
soon filled, and we organized for work. 
After two days the crowd was so large that 
the house would not hold the people. The 
third day being Sunday, we went to the 
woods, where a thousand people assembled 
to hear about Sunday-schools. I met many 
friends whom I had known twenty-six years 
ago, when I first visited the county and 
organized twenty-one Sunday-schools in it. 
Many of these have since grown into 
churches. It did one good to grasp the 
hands of those old friends, who opened their 
homes and hearts to me so long ago." 

After attending numerous other conven- 



A NEW WORK. 163 

tions in rapid succession, he speaks of one 
he attended where the house was too small, 
and the meetings were held in a grove, with 
more than a thousand persons present. 
" Here," he says, " I met many acquaint- 
ances who remembered ' Robert Raikes,' the 
famous Sunday-school horse. These people 
had given shelter more than once to myself 
and my faithful horse, more than twenty-five 
years ago." 

The following synopsis of a speech made 
by him at an International Sunday-School 
Convention, held in Atlanta, Ga., has for- 
tunately been preserved. It is upon the 
general topic of " State and Provincial 
Organization for Sunday-schools : " 

" Father Paxson, of Missouri, the veteran 
missionary, who has started more Sunday- 
schools than any man living, opened the 
topic. He had had considerable experience 
in the work of county, township, and state 
organization. He had gradually succeeded 
in planting fifteen Sunday-schools in Scott 
county, Ills. The need of co-operation, 
sympathy, and union soon began to be felt 
in this region, and he determined to call the 



164 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

schools together. They met in a two days' 
convention — memorable days, for this was 
the first county convention ever organized in 
the United States ! * It was in Scott county, 
Illinois, in 1846. So full was he of the con- 
vention idea, that people called him crazy. 

"But he never had more or better sense. 
' The time will come,' he had said, ' when 
there will be a county convention in every 
county in the state of Illinois.' He did not 
then expect to live to see the day ; but he 
had, thank God ! Years ago each one of 
the one hundred and one counties in Illinois, 
and seventy-three in Missouri, had its or- 
ganization. He had himself organized forty 
in Illinois, and did not know how many in 
Missouri, and to-day the eight counties 
contiguous to Scott, where the good work 
commenced, are more enthusiastic in the 
convention idea than an equal area, per- 
haps, in the United States. The uniform 
lesson the speaker believed to be the out- 
growth of the convention work. Nobody 
would have thought of it if they had not 
come together, found out the delight of 

* See note, p. 42. 



A NEW WORK. 165 

christian fellowship, and the advantages of 
united prayer, labor, and study. These con- 
ventions had also cured the frost-bitten 
schools among them. They do not close in 
winter now : the sentiment was against it. 
We say to them, ' Why, the devil don't stop 
his hoe-downs and shindigs in winter ! Why 
should you stop your Sunday-schools?' And 
they keep them going. 

" The county convention soon developed 
the need of a state convention, so they held 
their first state convention; but it was a 
weak affair. They kept on organizing, 
county after county, until the great state 
convention became a power. They em- 
ployed Mr. D. L. Moody, who has since 
become the world-renowned evangelist, to 
complete the organization of counties in 
the northern part, and the Rev. Mr. Wal- 
lace, a Methodist minister in the southern 
part of Illinois; and when they came to- 
gether in convention at Decatur, they had 
five thousand in attendance, and the town 
had erected a tabernacle costing over a 
thousand dollars for their accommodation. 
Father Paxson described, from first to last, 



166 -4 FRUITFUL LIFE. 

the process by which they raised at Decatur, 
in the midst of the greatest enthusiasm, by 
subscriptions made on the spot (and paid 
too), over $5,000 to carry on the work in 
the state. And they have never wanted for 
money in Illinois from that day to this ! 

"The township organizations are of equal 
necessity with county organizations for doing 
thorough work. They tried it in Illinois 
for ten years without township organizations, 
but found it slow work. The township and 
district conventions are the strength of the 
county, the counties of the state, and the 
states of the National and International 
Convention, which is before many years to 
cover the earth. 

" He believed that the next International 
Convention would be held in the city of 
London, and in his imagination he could 
already see that august body of delegates 
gathered from every nation under the heaven, 
and where, instead of the placards appor- 
tioning the floor of the house to Georgia, 
and New York, and Missouri, they would 
bear the names of England, Canada, France, 
Germany, Spain, Mexico, and China ! And 



A NEW WORK. 167 

right in the midst of all, in the centre of the 
house, will be the United States of America. 
"Is it too much to expect this? Not at all, 
when we look at the humble beginning of 
this grand work, and see how God has nursed 
and blessed this precious Sabbath-school 
institution, and carried it forward from 
strength to strength, to its present glorious 
proportions : 

" 'Tis weary watching wave by wave, 

And yet the tide heaves onward ; 
We climb like corals, grave by grave, 

And pave a path that's sunward. 
We're beaten back in many a fray, 

But never strength we borrow, 
And where the vanguard camps to-day, 

The rear shall rest to-morrow " 



CHAPTER X. 

CLOSING LABORS. 

It is to be regretted that Mr. Paxson kept 
no journal describing his varied experiences. 
In a blank-book where he occasionally wrote 
a few reflections, there is a list of a great 
number of his anecdotes, which none of the 
family can recall with sufficient accuracy to 
reproduce. The titles of these, such as : 
" Meeting my Sunday-school boys," " Little 
Sylvia Genett," " Old Lady in McDonough 
County," " Raises Lost," "The Skeptic," 
and like phrases, excite an interest to know 
what they were ; and the whole list of stories, 
if they could be written as he used to tell 
them, would absorb the attention of the 
young people who are unfamiliar with the 
peculiarities of frontier life. 

On one of his birthdays he wrote : 
" To-day I am sixty-one years old. How 
good God has been to me ! I thank him 
for a complete salvation finished in Christ. 

(168) 



CLOSING LABORS. 169 

I am not troubled. Let death come when 
it will, I feel ready to meet it. In recalling 
my youth, I find myself a debtor to grace 
all the way up. It is impossible to put upon 
paper my pleasant feelings of the goodness 
of God." 

On his sixty-second birthday he wrote : 

"A sinner saved by grace. I find no good 
thing within me. Many have been the 
bodily afflictions of the past year, and I 
ought to be a better man than ever before. 
On self-examination I find I am not. My 
daily prayer is, ' Lord have mercy on me, 
for Jesus' sake.' 

***** 

" The Lord is good ; Blessed be his holy 
name." 

On his sixty-third birthday, he wrote 
again : 

" Still a debtor to grace. If I am saved, 
it will be through the atoning blood of 
Christ." 

There were also many single reflections 
headed, " Things to Remember " — such as 
the following : " Trials rightly used lead to 
where trials never come." "Scattered 



170 ^ FRUITFUL LIFE. 

thoughts amount to nothing." " We are no 
better than we appear before God." " The 
truths of the Bible will partake of the in- 
fluences of the age in which they were 
written." " We never distrust our love to 
Christ, but we do distrust his love to us." 
" Earn money by honest effort, all you can ; 
for, without money no leisure, without leis- 
ure no thought, without thought no pro- 
gress." 

" It is better to go down through the ages 
as examples and inspirations of good, than 
as bearers of the scepter and the sword." 
" Only the law-maker keeps the law un- 
broken." " God gives us, not what we ask, 
but what we need." " Let your scholars 
drink from a running stream, and not from 
a stagnant pool." "A dead orthodoxy has 
been known in all ages of the Church, while 
a living orthodoxy, the truth as it is in Jesus, 
has produced all the fruit which the Church 
has borne." "A man who makes much of 
himself saves others the trouble of doing 
so." One of his frequent injunctions was: 
" Never place a man with a cymling head 
in an office of trust and responsibility." 



CLOSING LABORS. 171 

He would say to his children : " Do not 
choose B. for a constant companion. He is 
gotten up on the narrow-gauge." 

He was charmed with the wisdom of these 
golden verses of Pythagoras, and adopted 
them for his own use — 

" Nor let soft slumber close your eyes 
Before you've recollected thrice 
The train of actions through the day. 
Where have my feet chose out the way? 
What have I learnt, where'er I've been, 
From all I've heard, from all I've seen? 
What know I more that's worth the knowing? 
What have I done that's worth the doing ? 
What have I sought that I should shun? 
What duty have I left undone? 
Or into what new follies run ? 
These self-inquiries are the road, 
That leads to virtue and to God." 

In October, 1880, he had been married 
fifty years. It was thought appropriate that 
a golden wedding should be the " final glory 
of the golden days of work for the Master 
which preceded it." He had hoped to 
" give the half century significance." So 
the romantic wedding on the Holston river 
was re-celebrated at his home in St. Louis. 
The wife of his youth and the sharer of all 
his joys and cares was by his side, friends 



172 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

from the city and from abroad filled the 
rooms, his children and grand-children gath- 
ered about him. Golden wedding songs 
were sung, a poem was read in honor of the 
occasion ; his beloved pastor, Rev. Dr. 
Goodell, made a most appropriate address, in 
which he referred to the fact that the vet- 
eran had never grown old in spirit. 

A number of congratulatory letters from 
friends all over the states from the Lakes 
to the Gulf, from Maine to the "Golden 
Gate," were then read, adding pleasure to 
the occasion by their flashes of merriment 
and touches of earnestness and pathos. 
Even the telegraph added, from belated 
friends, brief messages of cheer for the 
festive occasion. 

The National Sunday-School Teacher, in 
reference to the celebration of this golden 
wedding, among other things, said : 

"Our friend deserves a golden wedding, 
for he has sown seeds that are bringing 
forth a golden harvest. Few men, with 
much greater opportunities and attain- 
ments, have done work that will count any- 
where near so much for mankind and the 



CLOSING LABORS. 173 

Master. With no education to speak of, be- 
yond that which was furnished by the Sun- 
day-school itself, he nevertheless became a 
powerful Sunday-school apostle, planting his 
favorite agency all over the prairie states. 
His head is now silvered, but to all who see 
him in the light of what he has accomplished, 
there is a golden halo about it. 

" When the history of the Sunday-school 
movement of to-day comes thoroughly to be 
written, his name will stand in shining char- 
acters as having no mean part in it. 

"It is pleasant to see a life with so golden 
a sunset. It is suggestive of a more radiant 
morning ! Stephen Paxson, with his memo- 
ries, is richer than many men with their 
wealth. And he is still so enthusiastic, so 
zealous, and so vigorous, that possibly we 
may be invited to his diamond wedding." 

While acting in the capacity of city mis- 
sionary in St. Louis, Mr. Paxson made the 
acquaintance of many young men and boys 
whom he influenced to seek better things 
than they had yet known. He could tell 
the story of the cross with such simple 
words and with so much pathos, that every- 



174 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

where young people heard him gladly. To 
him the divinity of Christ's life was an ever- 
present reality. He loved to picture the 
King in his beauty, the Christ as he appears 
in his mission to mankind. He would some- 
times answer questionings in regard to this 
King of Glory with the response of the poet : 

" Who upon Tiberias' sea, 

Stands in raiment white as snow? 

He, whose eyes have moistened been 

For human sorrow, scarlet sin, 
Who destroys eternal woe? 

He, who on Tiberias' shore 

Stands in raiment white as snow. 

"Man, whene'er thine eye is wet 
Thinking of eternal woe, 
He is gently calling thee 
From Tiberias' tranquil sea, 
Clothed in raiment white as snow." 

The study of the Bible became more and 
more dear to his heart. He would often 
come to the breakfast table with a face 
made radiant by the discovery of some 
beautiful, but hitherto unnoticed and unap- 
preciated verse. With an interest which 
was always contagious, he sought to inter- 
est every one he met in Bible readings 
and in the topical study of the scriptures. He 



CLOSING LABORS. 175 

wondered why he had formerly liked so 
well the wise sayings of Franklin, when 
here were maxims utterly incomparable ; or 
how he could have been deeply moved by 
poets at best so inferior to Israel's sweet 
singer. How could he ever have been ab- 
sorbed in a Shakesperian play, when the 
drama of Job was near at hand to dwarf 
the productions of the dramatist by its un- 
surpassed grandeur ? 

Among his little treasures laid carefully 
away in a private drawer were found, after 
his death, a much-used Bible, a copy of the 
" Imitation of Christ," by Thomas a Kempis, 
and Jeremy Taylor's " Holy Living." The 
leaves of these books were stitched and re- 
stitched, indicating constant use. The com- 
panion volume, " Holy Dying," was not 
among his books. He said he had no use for 
it — that his main business upon earth was to 
live, and that he did not believe in dying, 
for what men call death is only a joyous jour- 
ney, a glad going home. It would occupy 
but a moment, and there was no need of con- 
centrating attention upon it. If holy lives 
were lived, this would insure holy dying." 



176 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

He replaced his favorite songs of Burns 
and Tannahill of an earlier day, by quaint 
Scotch hymns which expressed his idea of 
going hence. A favorite and often sung 
verse was : 

"He is faithful that has promised ; He'll surely come again, 
He'll keep his tryst wi' me at what hour I dinna ken ; 
But He bids me still to watch an' ready aye to be 
To gang at ony moment to my ain countree." 

To the last he was willing to learn, es- 
pecially any thing which was in the interest 
of children. He took up the system of 
Pestalozzi, and made a careful study of the 
life and work of the Swiss reformer. 

A hobby is a luxury to old age, and the 
person who fails to find an innocent one, as 
the cares of life drop away, and the ability 
to do active service decreases, is to be 
pitied. Mr. Paxson, although busy to the 
end of life in his great work, was compelled 
to take things more leisurely and to travel 
less as he increased in years. The time 
thus gained he spent in making scrap-books. 
His Sunday-school scrap-books became a 
treasure-trove full of the richest gleanings 
upon Sunday-school topics. Besides these, 



CLOSING LABORS. 177 

he made others upon various subjects. He 
wrote out an index to each, and sought to 
make them as complete as possible. These 
books form a small library of themselves. 
Although he disclaimed the making of books 
to the man who wanted to buy the "Ameri- 
can Sunday-School Union " for fifteen cents, 
he became a rare good editor in compiling 
the thoughts of others. 

During the three months of invalidism 
which preceded his death the attempt was 
made to entertain him by reading to him. 
Upon one occasion a large book was selected, 
the life of some eminent person, but when a 
few chapters were passed over, he requested 
the reader to stop. 

"You have read this book?" he inquired. 
He received an affirmative answer. "Will 
you be so kind as to tell me, in the fewest 
possible words, the gist of the book — what 
this man did in the world that was worth 
the doing ? There are too many fine-spun 
theories in this book for me: life is too short 
to hear them. I want an author to grant 
me the privilege of making my own deduc- 
tions, based upon what his hero did." 
12 



178 A EBUITFUL LIFE. 

Upon another occasion "Sister and Saint," 
or the life of Pascal and his sister, was being 
read to him. He was pleased with Pascal's 
endurance of pain, his ability to come within 
one step of thinking out the " Differential 
and Integral Calculus " while suffering from 
an attack of toothache, but he said, " We 
have the gist of the saint's life in the motto 
of the book — ' Great hearts alone know how 
much glory there is in being good.' All you 
have since read only illustrates and amplifies 
this noble truth." 

A perfect character is never interesting in 
biography. It is as true in human nature as 
in nature, that where there are heights there 
must be depths, and absolute symmetry is 
not to be expected ; so the virtues of sin- 
cerity, earnestness, energy, and enthusiasm, 
together with natural eloquence, strong com- 
mon sense, and a remarkably childlike, 
teachable spirit, were marred in this case by 
a habit of great impatience. Stephen Pax- 
son could not brook restraint : he could not 
forbear to use his " whip of small cords 
upon money-changers in the temple." His 
sarcasm was keen, his invective terrible. 



CLOSING LABORS. 179 

He said, not many months before his death, 
" I have one more conquest to make, and 
then my life-work is done. I must learn to 
be patient, and not to rebuke my friends for 
their blunders." 

He set about this hard task with earnest- 
ness, and he was curious to know, near the 
last, if it was thought that he was succeed- 
ing. How well he finally accomplished this 
task is best expressed in the words of his 
pastor : " His life was unique, heroic, un- 
usual, helpful, powerful, from the day he 
first entered the Sunday-school till the day 
his earnest, fiery soul swept up to heaven, 
gathering force and volume and spiritual 
beauty every day he lived." 

He felt intensely the blessedness of living 
— so intensely, that for him the sun arose 
in splendor, the streams of earth moved 
onward, and the subtle influences of all 
creation were working for him. In thought 
he became a possible heir in God's great 
universe to wonderful benefactions. The 
idea of time became merged in that of 
eternity, and he saw the opportunities for 
soul-growth stretch onward endlessly, while 



180 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

something of the calm of the eternal entered 
his spirit. 

But he never once relaxed his hold upon 
his life-work. His last letter was addressed 
to the wife of a gentleman whom he was try- 
ing to persuade to enter the missionary field. 
He told her he had already recommended 
her husband, and urged her to favor his 
adoption of the work. 

To the last week of his life it was in his 
thoughts, if he grew better, to attend the 
International Sunday-School Convention at 
Toronto, and to go and see his old friend 
Mr. S. B. Pratt, of Boston. 

When at last he knew that he could not 
recover, he would say with gratitude, " The 
Lord is taking to pieces the tabernacle of the 
body very gently." But he never spoke the 
word " death." He would say, " I shall not 
go to-day," or, " Perhaps I shall go to-mor- 
row," with all the composure and readiness 
to depart which characterized his frequent 
leave-takings during the past forty years. 

He sent this message, to be delivered to 
all christians who knew him and to all who 
love the Lord Jesus : " This is my word : 



CLOSING LABORS. 181 

Hold fast unto the end. Take hold of 
christian work, and hold on. I die at my post. 
All is clear and bright and peaceful. No 
fear, no tremor, but rest and comfort in God." 

Rev. W. P. Paxson thus writes of his 
father's last hours : 

" Several days before he died, I asked him, 
1 Father, if you should go, is it all right ? ' 
He said to me in tones of surprise, ' Why my 
son, that was settled many years ago.' 

"I have seen many death-bed scenes, but 
his was the grandest I ever saw, in its calm, 
conscious sense of complete salvation. His 
last words were, ' Rest ! rest ! rest ! ' ' Home, 
sweet home ! ' ' Bless the Lord ! ' was also 
often on his lips. Pie told me to say to all 
his friends, ' Live for Christ ; there's nothing 
true but heaven.' So he died, and so we 
go on, with heaven so much richer and 
sweeter. His love for the old Sunday- 
School Union never faltered. The last long 
conversation we had was for her interests. 
He said, ' Go on, William ; you can do more 
good there than anywhere else. It is the 
grandest society on earth.' How I shall 
miss his clear, ringing words in behalf of 



182 ^ FRUITFUL LIFE. 

the children ! But his pleading is now 
changed to praising, and in the bright for- 
ever we shall meet again. How many he 
has already met! Peck, Father Adams, 
A. W. Corey, and, besides other workers, 
Father Martin, and a great host of children 
who have gone on in childhood from his 
Sunday-schools to the rest beyond. He 
gathered us all around him, named his chil- 
dren and his grandchildren, and said, ' God 
bless the children ! ' Then, raising his eyes 
upward, he said, slowly, ' I see more.' ' Did 
he catch a glimpse then of the glory ? " 

And so, suffering no pain, but feeling an 
intolerable weariness, the old pioneer laid 
down his armor and went before, as he had 
so often done. 

When his spirit took its peaceful, happy 
flight, the last rays of the setting sun fell 
upon the couch where his wearied but still 
beautiful form reposed in its dreamless sleep; 
and when a flower-strewn grave was made 
in Belle Fontaine, the clouds dispersed, and 
the last rays of the setting sun illumined the 
resting place of one whose life-sun had set 
only to know elsewhere a glorious rising. 



CHAPTER XII. 

TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS AND CO-LABORERS. 

The Rev. B. W. Chidlaw, of Ohio, writes : 
* * * "In 1856 a convention of missionaries 
of the American Sunday-School Union was 
held in Cincinnati. Our eastern brethren were 
represented by ministers from various cities, 
and there were present some thirty mission- 
aries from western and southern fields. Hon. 
B. Storer, of Cincinnati, presided over the 
large and enthusiastic public meetings which 
were held each evening of the convention. 
When we first met together we were stran- 
gers, but we soon became acquainted, and 
the friendship then commenced is fragrant 
to-day. At one of the meetings one of our 
number, stalwart in form and then some- 
what rustic in appearance, with hesitancy of 
expression and in simple language told the 
story of his early life and his missionary 
experiences. This narrative made a deep 
impression upon every mind, and placed him 

(183) 



184 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

in the front ranks in missionary work; a 
position he has fully occupied until his 
death. In after years it was my privilege 
to be associated with him in visiting eastern 
cities and laboring in behalf of the American 
Sunday-School Union. 

"In the largest churches and before crowded 
houses his simple stories and thrilling inci- 
dents related in his peculiar way illustrated 
the missionary work and its results with 
wonderful power on the minds and hearts of 
his hearers. His personal appearance, his art- 
less, natural manners and the sweetness of his 
voice, immediately won the attention of his 
audience. As he told of his labors amid the 
pioneer homes scattered over prairies and for- 
ests, talking to parents and children of Christ 
and the Bible, and Sunday-schools — of how he 
organized those interested into Bible-schools, 
choosing superintendents and appointing 
teachers, securing helps and books to render 
efficient and permanent the christian work 
thus introduced and put into operation — 
they felt that he was a workman that needed 
not to be ashamed, a man of God, well quali- 
fied for the important service which brought 






TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 185 

such blessings to those enjoying these minis- 
trations of love and kindness. 

" In 1858, while on a tour with him, we 
had an appointment at the Rev. Dr. Van- 
dyke's church in Brooklyn, N. Y. His feel- 
ing of distrust in himself, and anxiety to 
honor the Master, appeared to weigh heavily 
upon his sensitive mind. We were the 
guests of Albert Woodruff, Esq., a true friend 
of every good work, and a man deeply in- 
terested in the American Sunday-School 
Union. While spending our time pleasantly 
in his beautiful home, Brother Paxson was 
much concerned in regard to the meeting to 
be held that evening, and, with his charac- 
teristic honesty and simplicity, inquired of 
me what subject he had better talk about 
that night. ' You would do well to show 
that the labors of a Sunday-school missionary 
are needed to explore the destitute places, to 
awaken an interest in the establishment of a 
Sunday-school, and to tell how you organize 
the work.' 

" ; Well,' he remarked, ' I had better blaze 
a track by noting down a few facts and inci- 
dents. 



186 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" For the first [and last] time in his life 
he prepared some notes for use in his even- 
ing address. We had a large audience and 
a large collection was taken up for the So- 
ciety. After we returned from the church 
and had retired to our chamber, I inquired 
if he had taken his manuscript from the 
pulpit. 

" 'Oh, no ! I forgot all about it.' 

"'Did you notice,' I inquired, 'the re- 
porters at the table ? They will be glad to 
find your manuscript, and to-morrow morn- 
ing the speech will be in the papers just as 
you wrote it.' 

"'Oh, Brother Chidlaw, that will never 
do ! I must put on my boots and go over to 
New York and stop it.' 

" I had taken his manuscript from the pul- 
pit myself, and now handed it to him. He 
was delighted, and gave up his midnight 
visit to the New York printing office. 

" This production of his pencil was in 
genuine hieroglyphics ; it was ' sui generis* a 
rare specimen of his chirography and style, a 
real literary curiosity. 

"But his speech was well arranged and 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 187 

most effective, and he closed his address with 
what he called his ' old copy-plate/ a most 
earnest arid stirring appeal. 

" He was ever a welcome guest in chris- 
tian families, and quite as much at home in 
the dwellings of the wealthy as in the habi- 
tations of the lowly. Children were always 
attracted to him. His stories never failed to 
entertain and instruct them, and his con- 
versation was always salted with grace and 
becoming a faithful witness for Christ. 

"In public address a natural eloquence 
and a zealous soul made him an effective 
orator. What he believed he felt, and his 
utterance was with power. Stephen Paxson, 
with all the gifts God bestowed upon him, 
was a consecrated man ; soul and body, time 
and talent were laid upon the altar as a liv- 
ing sacrifice, devoted to the extension and 
improvement of Sunday-school work and the 
salvation of souls. In the language of the 
monarch bard of Israel, I can say of my 
honored and endeared fellow-laborer : ' I am 
distressed for thee, my brother: * * * very 
pleasant hast thou been unto me.' 

" I first met Mr. Paxson," writes Rev. S. 



188 -A- FRUITFUL LIFE. 

B. S. Bissell, of Norwalk, Conn., " at that 
memorable convention of Sunday-school mis- 
sionaries and officers of the American Sun- 
day-School Union, in Cincinnati, in the year 
1856. 

" So long as I remember anything I shall 
never forget the deep impression he made 
upon me as upon many others. It was dur- 
ing our first session, when some question re- 
lating to the missionary work of the Society 
was under discussion, and several had ex- 
pressed themselves variously, that one, whom 
I had not before observed, reclining in one 
of the pews on the left side of the desk oppo- 
site to where I sat, called out : ' Mr. Chair- 
man, I wish to say something upon this 
subject.' 

" He began at the same time to rise, and 
when, after some little time, he was done 
rising, and stood up a tall form of sturdy 
strength, I had never before seen such a 
specimen of a man of the woods and prairies. 
He was evidently master of his theme (or 
it was master of him), as he told his Sunday- 
school experiences in his missionary work in 
Illinois and Missouri. He described some of 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 189 

the scenes with such graphic power that it 
was evident he could say, 'We speak that 
we do know, and testify that we have seen.' 
And all were ready to receive his testimony. 
His stormy utterances, whose eloquence was 
enhanced by a slightly stammering tongue, 
while his eye kindled and his form dilated, 
moved our hearts as the trees of the wood 
are moved before the wind. It was so, also, 
when he addressed the crowded congregation 
at night in the church. 

"From that time his fame, before restricted 
to the field of his labor, was spread abroad 
north and east, where he visited churches, 
schools and other assemblies, and electrified 
them by his intense earnestness. 

" What a great consecrated soul was his ! 
who could more truly say than he of his 
work for the children, ' This one thing I do.' 
And what a record, and what memorials are 
his ! so wonderful as to be almost incredible, 
if not so well authenticated as to compel 
belief." 

Rev. Robert West, St. Louis, says 

" There are three things to which I wish 
to call attention, which were very remark- 



190 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

able in him : One was the catholicity of his 
character. He loved all christians ; he be- 
longed to all denominations. God's work 
with him was one work. In all matters in 
which evangelical churches were in har- 
mony, he agreed with them; concerning those 
things wherein they disagreed, he cared 
nothing. He quarreled with nobody. He 
did not spend his life in finding fault. He 
took in all the family of God. He belonged 
to them ; he worked for them. Another 
thing was his good humor, that pervaded 
his whole christian life, giving him a sunny- 
faced religion. As a little child once said of 
some one else, it was always easy to be a 
christian when Stephen Paxson was around. 
All the pleasantness of life was his. He 
brought joy and gladness wherever he went. 
What a great life was his, and what a strong 
man! 

" I have met some strong men, I think, 
but, in certain lines, I have never met such 
a strong character as Stephen Paxson. 

" One thing more I should mention : his 
hearty sincerity and openness of his whole 
life. The first time he was in New York, 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 191 

upon being approached by a beggar, be un- 
hesitatingly put his hand in his pocket and 
gave to him. His friend, in whose company 
he was, remonstrated with him, telling him 
that many street beggars were great frauds. 
Mr. Paxson said, ' Don't tell me ! It may be 
so, but let my money go. I had better give 
a thousand times, and bestow on unworthy 
objects, than to close my pocket against a 
worthy one. I can not do it.' 

" No one was allowed to pull down the cur- 
tain between Stephen Paxson's heart and the 
need of his fellow-men. He was sincere, and 
one who could afford to be sincere ; for his 
life was as pure and as free and clear as the 
water in whose shining depths you can see 
the pebbles at a distance of sixty feet. He 
could afford to be good-humored and to lift 
his face with joy ; for he did not need to die 
to go to heaven, for he had heaven within 
him ; he knew in whom he trusted. There 
was no condemnation to him ; he had passed 
from death to life. 

" The last time I saw him, and while I 
was assisting him to the street-car and we 
were talking upon business matters, he said 



192 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

pleasantly, ' We shall meet together soon. 
I feel weary. We shall meet again soon.' 
And we shall, in a little while." 

Prof. C. W. Jerome, of Carbondale Univer- 
sity, after acknowledging his own personal 
indebtedness to Mr. Paxson, writes thus : 

" The success of the work in the Sixth 
Sabbath - school district of Illinois, over 
which I had a care for six years, is due, in 
a very large extent, to the presence, energy, 
counsel, ana 1 cheer of this great and good 
man. 

" He accompanied me in making several 
tours through the district, visiting each 
county and holding conventions. He was 
always ready, with willing mind, hand, and 
heart, to encourage, aid, and advise. His 
large experience in, and thorough knowledge 
of, the work rendered him a safe and wise 
counsellor. Hundreds of letters came to me, 
saying, ' Be on hand at the county conven- 
tion, and be sure and bring "Father Pax- 
son" with you.' 

" Sometimes he would go through great 
obstacles and difficulties. His severe afflic- 
tion and lameness often made it necessary 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 193 

to provide a conveyance for him for even 
short distances; but amid all his sufferings 
he ever exhibited a wonderful degree of 
cheerfulness and christian fortitude. He 
would often stand and talk to the audience 
for a while, and then, becoming exhausted, 
would request us to sing until he should rest 
and be able to continue his words of cheer 
and instruction. 

" His Bible, his scrap-books, his Sunday- 
school cards, helps and supplies, and his soul- 
stirring songs are fresh in the memory of thou- 
sands in southern Illinois. His watchword 
was ' Work.' He would often sa}% ' I will 
soon be gone.' 'I must do all I can.' 'I can 
not rest.' ' The work is too important, and 
souls too precious, to lose a single moment.' 
His whole life was characterized by incessant 
toil. I can not well refrain from giving a 
verse of one of his favorite songs, viz. : 

" ' There's no time for idle scorning, 
While the days are going by ; 
Let your face be like the morning, 

While the days are going by. 
O, the world is full of sighs, 
Full of sad and weeping eyes ! 
Help your fallen brothers rise, 
While the days are going by 1 
13 



194 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

Cho. : " ' Up, then, trusty hearts and true ! 

Though the day comes, night comes too. 
O the good we all may do, 

While the days are going by ! ' 

" His fervor and earnestness and his 
pointed and terse sayings were deeply im- 
pressed upon the minds of his hearers 
wherever he went. His interest in the 
children made him an object of affection in 
many households. I once asked him to put 
his autograph in my Bible. He wrote the 
following : 

" 'The essential elements of a good Sabbath- 
scJiool are Grace, Grit, and Greenbacks. — 
Stephen Paxson.' 

" I shall never forget our last parting. It 
was at our District Convention at Du Quoin, 
last October. Though feeble in health he 
was unusually active and earnest in the grand 
work that had called us together. His words 
burned in our hearts, with moving eloquence 
and pathos, on the importance of duty and 
the imperative necessity of greater earnest- 
ness and activity. 

" He was to return to St. Louis before the 
Convention adjourned. Business was sus- 
pended, and he was invited to speak once 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 195 

more to the people. He rose and with trem- 
bling voice exhorted us to be faithful. He 
said he would not meet us again. He was 
now on borrowed time and would soon be 
gone. ' Hold fast to the end.' His farewell 
words will never fade from our hearts. All 
eyes were moved to tears. As he was about 
to leave, holding his grip sack in one hand, 
I stepped to the edge of the platform, and 
clasping his other hand in mine, said : 

" ' Father Paxson, when shall we meet 
again ? ' 

"With tears streaming down his aged 
face and voice too tremulous for utterance, 
he relaxed his grasp and pointed heaven- 
ward. The hearts of all were touched — 
electrified. It was the finger of prophecy. 
He left us never to meet this side the golden 
gate. 

"Father Paxson, so dearly beloved, has 
gone to his reward. All over this district — 
throughout these seventeen counties — thou- 
sands of hearts well nigh stood still, when 
the telegraph flashed over the country the 
intelligence that Father Paxson was dead. 

" Words are powerless to speak adequately 



196 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

of a life so useful, so beautiful, so consistent 
and fragrant with love and beneficence. His 
fervent devotion to the cause of humanity in 
the church, in the Sabbath-school, in Bible 
study; his unremitting advocacy of the 
claims of childhood to a knowledge of the 
Word of Life; his faithfulness, Paul-like, 
and his perseverance, until white hair and 
faltering limbs gave indication of decay, all 
render his name most memorable." 

Mr. William Reynolds, of Peoria, writes : 
" To Stephen Paxson, Illinois is indebted 
for her admirable system of county and town- 
ship organization. He was the originator of 
this plan : organized the first county and held 
the first convention in the state.* In his 
early work of establishing Sunday-schools, 
he soon realized the necessity of bringing 
these schools into closer relationship to each 
other, that they might encourage one another 
and learn from each other how to overcome 
difficulties incident to the work. He also 
wished to create more enthusiasm in the 
work, as well as to encourage those who had 
no special interest. For this purpose he 

* See p. 42. 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 197 

would get up large mass meetings in groves. 
Sometimes 3,000 people would gather in 
families* and schools, bringing their baskets 
of refreshments with them. After partaking 
of their lunch Father Paxson would gather 
the children together and have them sing 
Sunday-school hymns. After this he would 
mount the platform, or sometimes a stump, 
and give them an earnest talk of thirty or 
forty minutes on the importance of the Sun- 
day-school, lie found such gatherings left 
most beneficial results. This work led him 
to reflect on the possibility of extending and 
organizing these mass meetings into perma- 
nent shape. Out of this grew the present 
county and township Sunday-school organi- 
zation. At the Seventh Annual Convention 
of Illinois Sunday-School Workers, held in 
Peoria, June, 1865, Mr. Paxson presented 
his views on this subject, and urged the ap- 
pointment of a special committee whose duty 
it should be to take this matter in hand and 
prosecute it throughout the state. His plan 
was seconded by D. L. Moody, Mr. Vincent, 
and others, and adopted by the convention. 
A fund of twenty-five hundred dollars was 



198 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

raised on the spot and the committee ap- 
pointed. They immediately went to work 
and never rested until the 102 counties of 
Illinois were thoroughly organized, holding 
their county conventions annually, and a 
large proportion of the counties, township 
conventions also. In all this work Father 
Paxson was a leading spirit. He was en- 
dowed with wonderful common sense, quick 
perception of character, enabling him at 
once to discover the right man for the right 
place. He was a most effective public 
speaker: earnest, magnetic, always speaking 
to the point. He never rose before a con- 
vention without commanding attention at 
once, and keeping it to the end. His de- 
votion to the Sunday-school cause was an 
inspiration to all those who worked with him. 
With one exception I never knew a man who 
was so intensely interested in the advance- 
ment of the cause of the Master. He would 
talk on no other subject : appeared to be con- 
cerned about nothing else. Temporal things 
were but trifling toys in his eyes. It could 
truthfully be said of him, ' This one thing I 
do.' Few men have accomplished so much 






TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 199 

for Christ as Father Paxson. At thirty 
years of age he was scarcely able to read ; 
had an impediment in speech which gained 
for him the appellation of ' Stuttering Ste- 
phen.' Led into Sunday-school by his little 
daughter, converted there, educated there, 
he felt a debt of gratitude for the Sunday- 
school which a life consecration to the work 
alone repaid. 

" By God's help he was enabled ^o estab- 
lish over 1,300 Sunday-schools, and 80,000 
children were drawn into these schools: 
he overcame the difficulty in his utterance 
and became one of the most effective speakers 
in the land. It is wonderful what God can 
do with his children when they place them- 
selves in his hands to be used by him. • I 
have known Father Paxson intimately for 
seventeen years; have met him in conven- 
tions from one end of this state to the other. 
I never knew a more devoted, consistent 
christian. I thank God for such a life. 
What a grand success ! No man in Illinois 
has probably exerted such an influence for 
good morals and religion. Scores of churches 
have sprung out of these schools. Thousands 



200 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

of conversions have been the result of this 
work. Hundreds of ministers are now 
preaching the gospel, who first received their 
inspiration in these schools, established by 
Stephen Paxson. What a reward such a 
man must receive from the Master ! ' Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant, enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord.' May God 
raise up more such valiant soldiers of the 
cross ! May his example and success lead us 
to more devotion and sacrifice for him who 
loved us and gave himself for us! He was 
one of the busiest men I ever knew, con- 
stantly about his Master's business. He was 
always cheerful. I never saw him discour- 
aged. He felt that his part was to do his 
best, God's part was to bless and produce 
results. He had great faith in God and be- 
lieved implicitly his promises. Stephen 
Paxson was a rare man — 'earth is poorer 
and heaven richer ' by his death." 
Mr. B. F. Jacobs, of Chicago, writes: 
"A complete history of the county and 
state Sunday-school work in Illinois would 
in itself form a biography of Stephen Pax- 
son. My first acquaintance with him was 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 201 

in the city of Chicago, where at an early day 
I heard him speak in a meeting held in the 
Second Presbyterian church, in the interest 
of Sunday-schools. I shall never forget the 
impression made upon my mind by the man 
and his words. I heard him tell the story 
of his Sunday-school life : how he was per- 
suaded and led by his little daughter into Sun- 
day-school ; how he was asked by the super- 
intendent to take charge of that class of boys ; 
how he answered as best he could their ques- 
tions, and with what astonishment their re- 
quest for tickets was repeated to the super- 
intendent ; how his own heart was interested 
in studying the lesson that he was to teach 
them; how God's Spirit touched his heart 
and led him to see Christ as his own personal 
Saviour; how he went on in his own work 
step by step until he was compelled of the 
Lord to leave everything else and engage in 
his service ; how he journeyed from place to 
place trying to organize Sunday-schools ; of 
the obstacles he met and the victories that 
he won ; of the horse, Robert Raikes, the 
photographs of which were received as prizes 
in our school. I well remember how the 






202 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

pony looked and how the old-fashioned buggy- 
looked, and how Stephen Paxson looked as 
he distributed the tracts, and how the boys 
and girls looked that filled the buggy and 
helped him in his work as he moved along. 
I heard him describe the organization of 
their first Sunday-school convention, and tell 
of the blessings that God had bestowed upon 
them in that part of the state, and inwardly 
I resolved if God would spare me I would 
try to do what I could to carry forward the 
work of organization and the convention and 
institute work that he had begun in Illinois. 
I frequently heard of him, but I did not meet 
him again until I met him in our state con- 
ventions. There I learned his great power 
and influence over others in this work. He 
seemed to me to be the link between those 
of us, who were further away, and the people 
that we desired to reach. 

" I often felt, in the beginning of my own 
work in the state, as if Father Paxson was 
to hold me with one hand and the people 
with the other, and permit me to speak 
to them. I remember his wonderful enthu- 
siasm, his holy joy, his great delight in every 






TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 203 

measure that was proposed that seemed to 
him to be an advancing step in the march of 
progress. I used to wonder, as I looked upon 
him when he sat upon the platform or in the 
audience, and the best speakers that we could 
secure were putting forth the most advanced 
thoughts in Sunday-school work, how his 
eyes kindled, and how thoroughly he sym- 
pathized with it all; and I said in my heart, 
' If his smile of approbation is upon it, it must 
surely be right.' I used frequently to watch 
him to see if he shook his head or if a 
shadow passed over his face ; but never do I 
remember having seen a sign of disapproba- 
tion at any measure that was proposed that 
I could approve. During the intervals of the 
convention, or when sometimes traveling 
with him from place to place, his wonderful 
experience seemed absolutely inexhaustible. 
He would narrate by the hour instances of 
conversions, instances of consecration, and 
wonderful blessings that God had given in 
places that seemed to be almost hopeless. 
He would encourage and cheer those who 
were despondent, by assuring them that suc- 
cess would crown their efforts if they were 



204 ^ FRUITFUL LIFE. 

faithful to God. I remember he was among 
the first to grasp me by the hand, to utter 
his approving words, when I proposed the 
system of uniform lessons, first for our coun- 
try, and then for the world. He assured me 
that it would succeed, because, he said, ' it is 
of God;' and never did his enthusiasm and 
approval of the work flag for an hour. I was 
deeply interested, as I met him at conventions 
during the latter years of his life, or saw him 
in his store in St. Louis. His Sunday-school 
scrap-book I requested as a special favor he 
would will to me when he died, if there 
were no Sunday-school workers left in his 
own family. The collection was wonderful, 
and when any of the speakers had made any 
good suggestion on almost any topic, he 
would instantly begin to turn the pages of 
his scrap-book, and by the time the address 
was ended, he would be ready with para- 
graphs touching upon the work or illustrating 
it that often gave point to the address. He 
seemed to have a comprehensive knowledge 
of everything that was wanted from begin- 
ning to end. It is impossible to estimate the 
influence of his life upon Sunday-school work 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 205 

in our own state. It is of course impossible 
perfectly to compute the force of any great 
power that influences us from without or 
from within, but it must be true that not 
only hundreds, but thousands, of the workers 
in Illinois owe a debt of gratitude to Stephen 
Paxson. Most gladly do I pay my tribute 
to his memory ; most heartily do I thank 
God for his noble life, for the influence it has 
had upon my own ! Eternity alone will re- 
veal the good that he has accomplished ; and 
if to his own direct personal efforts there 
should be added any portion of those who 
through his influence have been instrumental 
in reaching others, the revenue of glory will 
be well-nigh immeasurable. God grant that 
many others like him may be given not only 
to his own state, but especially to the new 
states and territories, that they may be im- 
pressed and influenced for Jesus Christ ! " 
Nelson Kingsbury, of Connecticut, writes : 
" Stephen Paxson was always a welcome 
visitor in my family, spending days and 
sometimes weeks at a time ; in fact, he called 
my house his ' New England home.' We 
were always glad to meet him, for he was a 



206S A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

genial friend and companion to every mem- 
ber of my household, from oldest to youngest. 
He was especially fond of music ; always 
seemed happiest when singing songs of 
praise, following the Scripture injunction, 
' Let them also that love thy name, be joyful 
in thee.' Several times a day he would ex- 
claim, ' Now let's have a good sing ! ' There 
were two hymns of which he never tired ; 
one was ' Song of Faith,' beginning, < Had I 
but the faith of pious Abel,' another ' Climb- 
ing up Zion's hill ;' and his powerful voice 
would come out louder and stronger on the 
chorus, as if he was, in truth, by song, try- 
ing to reach that Zion. He had a peculiarly 
happy faculty of winning the love of chil- 
dren, and this gave him his great power in 
the organization of Sunday-schools. 

" He was always enthusiastic in his Mas- 
ter's service, devout and earnest in his 
prayers. As a public speaker he was 
equaled by few. His charming native elo- 
quence would move an audience, as forest 
trees are swayed by the wind, kindling great 
enthusiasm, when others, more gifted in 
knowledge, would utterly fail to excite any 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 207 

interest. As a Sunday-school worker, he 
was sound in judgment, judicious in manage- 
ment, and always ahead of the times in 
devising and executing measures for pro- 
gressive work." 

The following sketch is from the pen of 
S. Brain ard Pratt, of Boston : 

" I have tried to put my recollections of 
Mr. Paxson into some definite form, and 
there is one picture that will always come 
to my mind whenever I think of him. 

"It is that of a grand old man, whose 
large massive frame held a larger heart, as 
he sat with us around the open fire of my 
library in Woburn. 

" He is keeping us all merry with his 
strange, weird stories of backwoods life ; 
and, as he lives over again the old scenes, 
his excitement deepens, and he walks the 
floor, telling one story after another till the 
fire burns low, and the night is far spent. 
He always impressed us with the fact that 
genuine goodness, and hard service in the 
vineyard of the Master, could be combined 
with a warm and merry heart. 

" His jokes — often at his own expense — 



208 ^ FRUITFUL LIFE. 

were full of wit, and the little ones, no less 
than their elders, anticipated his visits with 
delight. He was always welcomed to the 
pulpits of those pastors who knew him, and 
as he repeated one after another the facts 
which he called God's arguments to the 
spell-bound audience, you could see the 
tears gather in many eyes, showing that 
hearts were touched by the simple story he 
told. 

" We had hoped to see his face again on 
earth, but we have the joyful assurance that 
in the ' bye and bye' we shall sit together in 
the better home which he has reached a little 
before us." 

The Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, D. D., writes 
of " Stephen Paxson's Life Lesson " thus : 

" Stephen Paxson is perhaps more peculi- 
arly and emphatically to be taken as a rep- 
resentative product and promoter of the 
pioneer Sunday-school of America than any 
man who has lived ; and because of this fact, 
if for no other, his story ought not to pass 
out of mind with his passing away from ac- 
tive labor among us. He was, to begin with, 
one of a representative class of settlers in 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 209 

our frontier communities. He moved from 
Alabama to Illinois while the latter state 
was largely a wilderness. It was in a union 
Sunday-school, started in the public school- 
house of his immediate neighborhood in that 
Illinois home, that first his children and 
then himself were led to know and trust the 
Saviour of children and of the child-like. 

"Child-loving and child-like, as he was, 
Stephen Paxson received the kingdom of 
God as a little child, while he sat with little 
children, in that pioneer and primitive Sun- 
day-school. Then rising up with new love 
for a newly found Saviour, he went out to 
gather children and their friends into another 
Sunday-school, started by himself in another 
needy neighborhood, that they also might 
have his knowledge and his joy in Christ 
Jesus. And from this beginning in pioneer 
Sunday-school life, and pioneer Sunday- 
school work, he continued his wise and 
loving labors all unaided, until he was 
found by a representative of the American 
Sunday-School Union, and employed to 
prosecute these labors yet more widely, with 
the promise of support to the extent of one 

14 



210 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

dollar a day. Then began his more formal 
missionary work; and he went on into dis- 
tricts far beyond his home neighborhood, 
until he had been the means of gathering, in 
Illinois and adjoining states, more than 
fifteen hundred Sunday-schools, into which 
were gathered upwards of seventy thousand 
scholars and teachers. On the beginning of 
these neighborhood Sunday-schools, churches 
of various denominations were gathered and 
organized, until on a moral map of the re- 
gions traversed by him his course could be 
tracked as in a blaze of spiritual light. His 
children and his grandchildren came to be 
workers with him in his chosen field ; and 
they are still continuing his labors, — as in- 
deed are multitudes of those whom he brought 
into christian service, or directed in new and 
more efficient methods; so that it may be 
said unqualifiedly that Stephen Paxson has 
been a factor in the religious progress of the 
central west in all this generation. 

"Although he was deficient in early mental 
training, Stephen Paxson was by no means 
deficient in native qualities of mind and 
heart calculated to give him power in any 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 211 

direction to which his energies were turned. 
He was a man of convictions, and of high 
personal courage — both physical and moral 
courage. He had fine sensibilities, a keen 
appreciation of the feelings and the needs of 
others ; and a sense of the beautiful in both 
nature and art ; also, of course, an equally 
keen sense of the ludicrous, for these two 
things must go together to secure a balance 
in any man. He had rare tact in dealing 
with men, and an indomitable will in the 
prosecution of every work to which he had 
set himself. He loved children, and they 
were quick to see this. When all his native 
qualities were consecrated, and his soul was 
possessed by an absorbing love for Christ, 
there was hardly a limit to his effectiveness in 
the cause which he had espoused so zealously. 
" Moreover, he had the power of growth. 
With all his strong personality, he was quick 
to see his lack when brought into comparison 
with a better standard ; and he was equally 
quick to find some way of meeting his lack, 
and to adapt himself to new conditions and 
surroundings. Some time after his beginning 
of missionary work, he was brought to the 



212 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

east to plead the cause of the American 
Sunday-School Union in New York and 
Philadelphia. 

" His first visit of this kind was such a 
success that it was many times repeated, and 
extended to other places, until Stephen Pax- 
son was at home in the villages and cities of 
the east, as well as in the woods and prairies 
and cities of the west. 

"As the years passed on, the labors of 
Stephen Paxson extended and improved. 
He influenced and impressed every commu- 
nity reached by him. His eldest son, the 
Rev. W. P. Paxson, came to be missionary- 
in-chief of all the region of the southwest. 
The very horse the father drove became pos- 
sessed of his spirit. That horse he named 
' Robert Raikes ; ' and it carried him more 
than a hundred thousand miles in Sunday- 
school missionary service. He used to say 
that 'that horse wouldn't go by a school-house 
without having his driver get out and visit 
it, any more than some horses would go by a 
country tavern without stopping ; and he 
would always slow up when he saw a child 
by the roadside, for his master to say a kind 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 213 

word, or to give a paper to the little one.' 
Summer and winter were alike seed-time in 
Stephen Paxson's work. He took no rest 
because of the weather. A favorite expres- 
sion with him, in defence of starting new 
Sunday-schools in the winter, was, 'A Sun- 
day-school born in a snow-storm will never 
be scared by a white frost.' And from start- 
ing new Sunday-schools he went on to im- 
proving old ones. He was wise and efficient 
in the training of teachers, and became a 
valued worker in Sunday-school convention 
and institute work. He ripened and matured 
in every way. He grew in grace and in 
gracefulness. The latter years of his life 
were passed in the city, and his whole ap- 
pearance and bearing were those of one who 
had been trained in a city. He died full of 
years and full of honors, loved and his loss 
lamented as widely as he had labored and 
been known. 

"At a service held in the old Cathedral of 
Chester, England, in celebration of the cen- 
tenary of Sunday-schools, in the midsummer 
of 1880, Dean Howson — whose 'Life and 
Epistles of St. Paul' has made his name 



214 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

familiar to all the English-speaking world — 
told the story of Stephen Paxson and his 
pony * Robert Raikes ' to the gathered multi- 
tudes, as an illustration of American Sunday- 
school work. And so long as the influence 
of the pioneer Sunday-school of America 
shall continue on earth or be remembered in 
heaven, the work which was done by Stephen 
Paxson and by those whom he brought into 
service in connection with this evangelizing 
agency, will be recognized and honored by 
God and man." 

George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, after 
expressing his sympathy for the family, 
says: 

" My acquaintance with Stephen Paxson 
extended over more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury, and but few years elapsed during that 
time in which I had not the pleasure of wel- 
coming him to my home. While he was 
beloved for his work's sake, he was no less 
so for his own sake. He was a man of a 
thousand. He had a racy humor and an in- 
exhaustible fund of anecdote. His sketches 
of frontier experience in the far west, where 
he did so much for the Master, brought home 



TESTIMONY OF FBIENDS. 215 

to us vividly a manner of life fascinating 
through its contrasts with our own. My 
children in their younger years learned to 
look forward to his annual visits with expec- 
tations of pleasure, and grew with their 
growth in years to regard him almost as one 
of our family circle in spite of the long in- 
tervals between his visits. 

" But it was his christian character which 
especially won him a warm place in our 
hearts. His prayers, when he led us at the 
family altar, were the truest and highest ex- 
pression of the man — simple, touching, ap- 
propriate, and winged with an unction which 
carried his petitions home to the heart of us 
all, parents, children and servants, on their 
way to the throne of grace. 

" Next to Mr. Paxson's prayers, his Sab- 
bath-school addresses were memorable utter- 
ances with us. He had the gift to reach, 
hold and benefit every kind of hearer, down 
to the very youngest, before him. Especially 
impressive was his account of his 'first days 
experience in the Sunday-school,' which I often 
heard, but was ever so fresh that I never 
tired in hearing it. 



216 A FRUITFUL LIFE. 

" Mr. Paxson's speeches showed him to be 
a man of one idea, whether spoken from the 
superintendent's desk, the pastor's pulpit, or 
the platform. That one idea was the salva- 
tion of the great west for Christ through the 
Sabbath-school, more particularly through 
the missionary work of the American Sunday- 
School Union. It was the work of this noble 
society, under God, which had led to his own 
conversion, and his transfer from a life of 
frivolity to the service of Jesus. Mr. Paxson 
had no educational advantages, not even 
those furnished by the common school ; but 
he had a native force of understanding, an 
instinctive perception of the shortest way to 
human hearts, and a courageous self-sacrifice 
which made him one of the most efficient of 
the noble band of missionaries of the Union. 

11 Once at a great meeting in Exeter Hall, 
in London, the Earl of Shaftesbury pre- 
siding, I was called at short notice to speak 
of the Sunday-school work and what it was 
doing for America. I could think at the 
moment of no better way to put the matter 
than to describe the life and labors of Stephen 
Paxson. When I told them how his faithful 



TESTIMONY OF FRIENDS. 217 

horse ' Robert Raikes' never could be got to 
pass a school-house or a child without stop- 
ping — the result of long experience of his 
master's habits — the reporters laid down 
their pens in evident disbelief of the state- 
ment. I paused, and then, amid the cheers 
and laughter of the vast assembly, I added : 
' You may put that down, too ; for it is the 
truth, and if you come to America you can 
see it for yourselves.' 

" Mr. Paxson has gone, but his work re- 
mains, and my earnest prayer is that the 
story of his remarkable life may be fruitful 
in raising up others to extend the glorious 
work of carrying the gospel of Christ home 
to the children of our country, and through 
them to the parents and friends in the 
manner of his own conversion." 



STAIDARD BOOKS OE REEEBMCE 

AND 

AIDS FOR TEACHERS, ETC., 

PUBLISHED BY 

THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. 



A Dictionary of the Bible: including Biography, Natural 

History, Geography, Topography, Archaeology, and Literature. 

With twelve colored maps, and over four hundred illustrations. 

Edited by Philip Schaff, D. D., LL.D. Crown octavo, 958 

pages. Price only $2.50. 
" No Bible Dictionary with vbich we are familiar can equal this in convenience 
of size and form, accuracy of statement, and freshness of information. In typogra- 
phy aud mechanical finish there is none better. For Sunday-school service it 
stands pre-eminent." — Rational Baptist. 

A Pictorial Commentary on the Gospel according to 

St. Mark, with the authorized and revised versions of the 

gospel in parallel columns, introduction to the gospel, analysis 

of its contents, chronological index, index of contents, and four 

maps, beside numerous illustrations, etc. By the Kev. Edwin 

W. Rice. 12mo., cloth, 228 pages. Price $1.00. 

"This is a new and invaluable service rendered to the student and teacher. 

There is a world of light in pictures. Oftentimes it is one of the very best means 

of interpretation of many otherwise inexplicable passages. The text is in clear 

type, pictures well executed, and the comments are scholarly and practical." 

The Gospel according to St. Mark, showing the author- 
ized and revised versions in parallel columns. Price 5 cents; 
by mail, 7 cents. With two maps, 6 cents; by mail, 8 cents. 
"A very convenient and useful manual for Sunday-school teachers and scholars." 

Teacher's Primer No. 1. Organization and Classification of 
Sunday-schools. By the Rev. Edwin W,. Rice. 12mo., 38 
Card-board covers, 15 cents ; cloth, 25 cents. 



It contain* Definitions; Origin and Kinds of Sunday Schools; How to Organize 
a School ; Classification; Buildings and Rooms; Orders of Service; Lessons; Spir- 
itual Life, etc. 

Nicholl's Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures. 

With Chronological Index. 12mo., 382 pages. With Maps 
of the World, as known to the Ancients; Canaan, illustrating 
the Books of Joshua and Judges; Palestine, illustrating the 
New Testament; Travels of the Apostle Paul; Jerusalem. 
$1.00. 

The Teacher Taught. An humble attempt to make the path 
of the Sunday-school Teacher straight and plain. New edi- 
tion, enlarged and improved. 446 pages, 12nio. $1.25. 



Anglo-American Bible Kevision. Its Necessity and 

Purpose. By the Members of the American Revision Com- 
mittee. 12mo., 192 pages. Paper, 25 cents ; cloth, 50 cents. 
Every lover of the Bible who wishes to know the aim and purpose of and reasons 
for the revision of the English Bible, now almost completed, will find them clearly- 
set forth in thi* volume. It is unexcelled by any similar work in its so pe, critical 
accuracy, and breadth of scholarship, given in a style calculated to interest and 
instruct tlie general reader. 

The Teacher Teaching. A practical view of the relations 
and the duties of tlie fcjunday -school Teacher. 371 pages, 
12mo. $1.25. 

Primary Teacher's Manual. For Snnday-school Workers. 
By Mrs. Alice W. Knox. l8mo., cloth. 40 cents. 

For the assistance of those already using the class system, and the many others 
■wishing to introduce it, this Manual has been specially prepared. The suggestions 
it contains, however, will be found equally helpful to all Primary Class Teachers 
in the Sunday-school. 

The Pocket Atlas of the Lands of the Bible, showing 

recent discoveries and explorations. Consisting of twelve new 
maps, beautifully drawn and colored. Price only 25 cents. 

New Biblical Atlas and Scripture Gazetteer. It con- 
tains twelve beautifully engraved maps, with letter-press 
descriptions. Accompanying is a full Scripture Gazetteer, 
locating the towns, cities, mountains, etc., of the Bible; giving 
the meaning of the names, and referring to the preceding maps 
on which they are located. Price $1.25. 

Biblical Antiquities. For the use of Schools, Bible Classes 
and Families. By Rev. J. W. Nevin, D. D. 12mo., 447 

pages ; with 9 large full-page plates and 75 illustrative engrav- 
ings. $1.50. 

The Union Bible Companion. Containing the Evidences 
of the Divine Origin, Preservation, Credibility, and Inspira- 
tion of the Holy Scriptures ; an Account of Various Manuscripts 
and English Translations; all the Books and Chief Doctrines 
of the Bible; the Plans of Christian Work, with a copious ana- 
lytical Index. By S. Austin Allibone. 12rno. $1.25. 

The Divine Origin of the Holy Scriptures. By S. Aus- 
tin Allibone, LL.D. 12mo., cloth. 168 pages. Second Edi- 
tion. Price 65 cents. 
This volume contains evidences of ihe divine origin, preservation, credibility, and 

inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and an account of the variuus manuscripts and 

English translations. 

The Four Gospels: Their Age and Authorship. Traced 
from the fourth century into the first. By the Rev. John Ken- 
nedy, M.A., D. D. Edited, with an Introduction, bv the Rev. 
Edwin W. Rice. 12mo., 170 pages. Price $1.00. 

Sometimes the question is asked, " How do we know that the Gospels were writ- 
ten by the four evangelists whose names they K>ar?" This volume will enable its 
readers to give the answer clearly and convincingly. 
2 



TOT^TJ^LuAJR books. 

A Fruitful Life: a narrative of the experiences and missionary 
labors ot Stephen Paxson. 12mo., cloth, 217 pages, with por- 
traits and illustrations. Price $1.25. 
"This is the record, not by any means fully told, of a pioneer and veteran mis- 
sionary who possessed more than most men the qualities which ennoble man and 
constitute the true hero." 

The Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century. By 

the Rev. Edwin Paxton Hood. With a supplemental chapter 

on the Revival in America; Appendix and Index of Contents. 

12mo., 325 pages, profusely illustrated. Price $1.25. 

"A perusal of this book will lead the reader to inquire whether there is a single 

chapter in all the ages of the history of the world so momentous as the eighteen ih 

century. No other age has effected so much for human, spiiitual, intellectual, and 

social well-being. Hence this book is full Of interest." 

Songs for the Master : selections from the poems of the late 
Frances Ridley Havergal. 32mo., 150 pages. With her por- 
trait. Paper cover, 25 cents ; cloth, plain, 40 ; red, 45 ; and 
gilt, 50 cents. 
"Our best and happiest singing," wrote Miss Havergal, "will flow where there 
is a sweet, silent undercurrent of prayerful or praiseful communion with our Mus- 
ter all through the sung." Hence the title of the book. A suitable companion to 
" Leaves of Life." 

The Sprag Boy; or, Faithful in Leapt. By Helen B. Wil- 
liams. 16mo., 171 pages. Illustrated. Price 75 cents. 
"This is a boy's book and a good one for them, although the girls will enjoy it 
too. It shows how a poor boy in the coal-mines found out the work God had for 
him to do, and learned that, if God wills it, a coalmine is better than a college." 

Pearls from the East. Stories and incidents from Bible his- 
tory. By the Rev. Richard Newton, D. D. Quarto, 176 pages. 
Very beautifully illustrated with full page pictures and bound 
in the best style. Price $1.25. 
"Dr. Newton's writings for children are deservedly popular. This will be wel- 
comed and prized by old as well as young." 

The Picture World for Little People. Reprinted on fine 

tinted paper and beautifully bound as a holiday book for the 

youngest children. Quarto, 98 pages. Price 75 cents. 106 

pages, including colored illustrations, 90 cents. 

"Its carefully-selected pictures, one, two, and three on each page, large type, 

short stories, and Bible lessons, will m;ike it a valued gift-book." 

Little Pilgrim Talks with Aunt Lillie. The first seven 
volumes are now published. By Mrs. Ella Rodman Church. 
48mo., 48 pages. Illustrated. Bound in illustrated cover. 
Price of each, 25 cents; the set, $1.50. 

The seven volumes consist of d) "A White Cat," " Polly's Potatoes;" (2) " Help- 
ing and Hindering," " Mnddling Frank ;" (3) " The Little Shepherdess," "A Walk in 
the Country;" (4) "The Pet Hen," "Good for Evil;" (5) "Snowed Up;" (6) " Why 
a Boy had the Croup," " Little Shoes;" and (7) "Lottie's Lesson." 

"These were written for a certain 'Little Pilgrim' who was a restless little girl, 
but so long as her aunt told ber these stories she was willing to Bit very quiet and 
•till. Aunt Lillie hopes they will be as pleasing to all her young readers." 
3 



Leaves Of Life. Choice poems by the late Frances Ridley 
Havergal. 32mo., 150 pages. Price, in cardboard, 25 cents ; 
cloth, plain, 40 cents ; red edges, 45 cents ; gilt, 50 cents. Put 
up in packages of leaflets, 25 cents. 

Our readers scarcely need our commendation of the verse of that sweet singer of 
the songs of Zion, Frances Ridley Havergal. This little book will be a treasure to 
a multitude of pious and devotional souls. The first edition was disposed of in two 
months. 

Foundation Stones, for Young Builders. A Book for the 
Boys and Girls of America. By the Rev. John Hall, D.D., of 
New York. 16mo., cloth. 75 cents. 

"There is nothing in the work from beginning to end that may not be read on 
the Lord's day, without any misgiving that the reading is more for the sake of the 
story than the divine truth it illustrates." 

Dr. Eenwick's Medicines. A Temperance Story. By Mrs. 
A. K. Dunning, author of " Ralph Waring's Money," etc. 
16mo., cloth. $1.00. 

Giving a very clear and strong picture of the danger incident to the use of alco- 
holic liquor in medicinal preparations, even when taken under the " direction of a 
physician." 

Bruey: A Little Worker for Christ. By Frances Ridley 
Havergal. 16mo., 284 pages. Illustrated. 

"Lovely, exceedingly, is the character of this dear little girl, and so graphically 
is the portrait drawn that we feel as if we had lost a sweet friend and a pet when 
she is called up higher." 

Through the Winter. 12mo., 399 pages. Illustrated. Price 
$1.50. 

"A well-told story — abetter story and better told than common. The name of 
the author is not given, but those who read the book will desire to have more from 
the same earnest, instructive, edifying pen." 

" Worthy to find a place in every Sunday-school library and at every fireside." 

The Oath-Keeper of Forano. A story of Italy and the in- 
troduction of the gospel there. By Mrs. Julia McNair Wright. 
12mo., 412 pages. Illustrated. Price $1.50. 

"It sets in effective contrast the earnestness and simplicity of these teachers of 
primitive truth (the Vaudois pastors), and the intriguing spirit of the Komish 
priesthood of the time." 

" Very few persons who read the opening chapter will be content to lay aside the 
volume until the last page has been turned." 

Beginning Life. By a Layman. Author of "Talks with Boys 
and Girls ; or, Wisdom Better than Gold," etc. Illustrated by 
four full-page cuts of "The Journey of Life," drawn and 
engraved especially for this book. 12mo., cloth, 251 pages. 
$1.50. 

"Wise parents will welcome the opportunity of putting into the hands of their 
boys and girls just 'beginning life,' a book presenting in such attractive form the 
rules and principles which ensure success and happiness for the life that now is, and 
that which is to come." 

4 



The Old Stanfield House; or, The Sin of Covetous- 

ness. By Lucy Ellen Guernsey, author of "Irish Amy," 
" The Fairchilds," etc. 16mo., 309 pages. Price $1.25. 
Teaching very effectively the danger and evils of an excessive love of money, as 
a "root of all evil." 

A "Woman's Talks About India ; or, The Domestic 
Habits and Customs of the People. By Harriet G. 
Brittan, author of " Kardoo," "Shoshie," etc. 16mo., 214 
pages. Price 90 cents. 
This book has all the interest of a story, with a large amount of profitable in- 
formation about the extent, population, climate, shopping, servants, marriages, 
animals, insects, superstitions, religions, and festivals, the sacred Ganges, Madras, 
Calcutta, and India generally. 

No Talent; and Phil's Pansies. Golden Text Stories. By 

Lucy Ellen Guernsey. 16mo., cloth, 169 pages. Price 75 

cents. 

The first story illustrates the text, " In as much as ye have done it unto one of 

the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me;" and the second, "Cast 

thy bread upon the waters ; for thou shalt find it after many days." 

Marion ; or, Safe in the Shadow of the Rock. By Mar- 
garet E. Winslow. 16mo., cloth, 188 pages. Price 75 cents. 

"This little book has been written solely to illustrate the way in which a child 
may come to Christ." The writer's hope and prayer is that it may be used for the 
salvation of many of the little ones. i 

Sibyl and the Sapphires; or, Trading in Vanity Pair. 

By Clara F. Guernsey, author of " Silver Cup," etc. 16mo., 
cloth. $1.25. 
An excellent story, portraying the faults and follies common to "girlhood," and 
the sad end of a life spent in " Vanity Pair." 

Odd Moments of the Willoughby Boys. By Mrs. Emily 
Hartley, author of " Phil Deny," etc. l6mo., cloth. 90 cents. 
Teaching how to use profitably and pleasantly the " odd moments " of life. It is 
a wide awake and attractive book for boys, and will please the girls as well. 

The Schooner on the Beach. By the Eev. Edward A. Band, 
author of " Kindling Wood Jimmy," etc. 16mo., cloth. $1.00. 
"A natural and attractively told story of the seaside, of fishermen, and the inci- 
dents of coastwise voyages. Old Ben is admirably wrought out, and his curious 
residence on board the stranded schooner gives a fresh piquancy to the incidents 
of the tale, and the influence of his life and words upon the boys that learned to 
love him, and to listen to his sea yarns, is naturally and effectively brought out." 

Laura's Aspirations; or, The Next Thing. By E. B. 

Hollis, author of "Adventures of a Day," etc., etc. 16mo., 
cloth. $1.25. 
Teaching that the secret of a successful life is, with God's help, to follow tho lead- 
ings of Divine Providence, and always be ready to "Doe the nexte thynge." 

Records of the " Do Without Society." By Mrs. Emily 
Hartley, author of " Ruth Allerton," etc., etc. 16mo., cloth. 
$1.00. 
Inculcating benevolence and kindness toward the poor and the unfortunate. A 
good text book for "Sewing Circles." 

5 



The Mission Box; or, Doing Good and Getting Good. 

By Lucy Ellen Guernsey, author of " Washington and '76," 

etc. 16mo., cloth. 90 cents. 
A faithful and clearly drawn account of what certain young ladies said and did 
whilst engage i in the laudable undertaking of furnishing a " box " for a western 
missionary, and well calculated to stimulate others to go and do likewise. 

Talks with Boys and Girls ; Or, "Wisdom Better than 
Gold. By a .Layman. ]2mo., 237 pages. With 12 pictures. 
Price $1.00. 

"The subjects are so judiciously viried as to keep the reader anxious to know 
what is coming next." — Rev. tinher' Patterson, U. O., of &tn Francisco. 
" I wish more people could ta if «n that way." — Rev. E. R. B^aiile, D. D. 
"The style of the book is just what it should be."— Rev. Daniel March, D.D. 

The Shawnee Prisoner. A Borderer's Story. By Clara 
F. Guernsey, author of "The Young Heiress," "Scrub Hol- 
low," "Alice Fenton," etc. 12mo., 329 pages. Price $1.25. 
Stories abmit the Indians, wandering tl trough the forest or at home in their 
camps, have attractions for young people; and some of them, we think, will not 
be satisfied with one reading, or two readings, of Archie Melville's adventures. 

Kindling- Wood Jimmy. 12mo., 252 pages. Price $1.00. 
A sprightly book with an excellent moral, by the Rev. Edward A. Rand. 

COMFOICT ^OIS THE SIC3Z- 

The Silent Comforter No. 1. For every household, for tents, 
hospitals or the sick-chamber, school-room, etc. Large folio 
sheets, with text in large type, bound in book form to hang 
upon the wall, and so arranged as to be changed every day in 
the month. Price 75 cents. 

The Silent Comforter No. 2 ; or, The Green Pastures. 

Being select verses containing prophecy and promise and solace 
and comfort. Price 75 cents. 

The Silent Comforter No. 3. From the Psalms. Prepared 
in a similar manner to the tiUove, but with texts taken solely 
from the Psalms. Price 75 cents. 
Full Catalogue and Specimens of Periodicals sent postage free on application to 

THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

1122 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

OR 

10 Bible House, New York, or 73 Randolph St.,. Chicago, 111. 



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